Kisser

Starred review from November 16, 2009
At the start of bestseller Woods's entertaining 17th Stone Barrington novel (after Loitering with Intent
), the handsome New York lawyer smoothly picks up Carrie Cox, an aspiring actress who's recently moved from Georgia to New York City, at Elaine's, his favorite Manhattan restaurant. As usual, every beautiful woman Barrington encounters pursues him, including Carrie, art gallery assistant Rita Gammage, U.S. attorney Tiffany Baldwin, and mentally unstable Dolce Bianci, to whom he was once briefly married. In spite of all the female attentions, Barrington manages to shield Carrie from her ex-husband, protect young heiress Hildy Parsons from a con artist/drug dealer, and plot to take down Ponzi scammer Sig Larsen. Too crafty to let Barrington sail unscathed through encounters with women or criminals, Woods devises plenty of snarls to provoke laughs and keep the action interesting in a series that excels at playing out male fantasies.

December 1, 2009
Manhattan attorney Stone Barrington (Loitering with Intent, 2009, etc.) gets dragged back onto the police force to close the books on his 17th case.

Stone prides his ability to turn on a dime. When Georgia peach Carrie Cox walks into Elaine's, he wastes not a moment in introducing himself and inviting her to the table he shares with former NYPD partner Dino Bacchetti. Learning that she's an actress turned lip model who's just fended off a seriously crude casting-couch come-on, he offers his professional services, and in a flash Carrie has followed Stone home, made peace with the offender and been cast in the starring role. She's apparently headed for happily-ever-after until ex-husband Max Long attacks her. Stone quickly gets an injunction against Max and provides bodyguards to keep him at arm's length. That plotline peters out, replaced by the far more prosaic dilemma of gallery owner Philip Parsons, who's worried about his wild child. Hildy, 24, is involved with Derek Sharpe, a sleazy, talentless painter who may also be dealing drugs. Indeed, Stone learns from his erstwhile father-in-law, mob boss Eduardo Bianci, that Sharpe is moving such large quantities of dope that his life is in considerable danger. Further danger to Hildy is posed by Sharpe's financial advisor, Sig Larsen, poised to snare her in a Ponzi scheme. Once Stone has been drafted into the force by eager-beaver Lt. Brian Doyle, who's determined to keep the lawyer under his personal control, neither dangers nor complications arise. You'd wonder why Stone thought it worth his while to be involved with the whole affair, if it weren't for the quality sex: with Carrie, with undercover cop Mitzi Reynolds, with Mitzi and Parsons's gallery assistant Rita Gammage—but not, readers will be reassured to hear, with the client's daughter or with Larsen's willing"wife."

Competent, routine work less notable for suspense or sleuthing chops than for what goes on, early, often and satisfyingly, between the sheets.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 1, 2009
Woods lawyer and private investigator Stone Barrington has never wanted for female company, but even he concedes he has too much on his plate in this latest outing: three lovers and three would-be companions, including his unbalanced ex-wife, Dolce. Stone is taken with beautiful actress Carrie Cox the moment he sets eyes on her at Elaines, and he agrees to help her secure the lead in a Broadway play and fend off the lascivious director. Carries problems dont end there, but Stone turns to a case of his own. A wealthy gallery owner wants Stone to find a way to separate his daughter from her disreputable artist boyfriend, Derek. When Stone learns that Derek is not only a swindler but also a drug dealer, he is drawn into an elaborate police sting operation, and into bed with an undercover officer and her girlfriend. Even Stone agrees his bedroom antics are a little over the top this time around, lamenting, I used to enjoy sex, but now there are too many demands being made. Readers looking for a fun, breezy page-turner will not be disappointed, and longtime fans of the series will have their curiosity piqued by Dolces return.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)