Hot Mahogany (Stone Barrington Series #15) » (Bargain)

With several successful mystery series going at once -- the most popular featuring jet-setting cop-turned-lawyer Stone Barrington -- Stuart Woods more than manages to keep focused on a bestselling streak that shows no signs of slowing down.

In Stuart Woods's engaging new thriller, Stone Barrington is lured from Elaine's to New England, and the genteel but cutthroat world of priceless antiques, historic homes, and lavish country estates. In a place dominated by bluebloods and their inherited wealth, along with the nouveau riche, there are surprisingly few rules of engagement, and Stone finds himself navigating a dangerous course, one where even the most expensive and sought-after status symbols are sometimes stolen and sometimes clever fakes, though no less priceless. With its swift action, bold characters, and wit as dry as the best martini, Hot Mahogany is another must-read from the pen of a master entertainer.

Publishers Weekly

Edgar-winner Woods's 15th Stone Barrington novel (after Shoot Him if He Runs) finds the familiar cast of characters up to their usual antics: dining at Elaine's, drinking expensive liquor and having fantastic sex. Stone's pal CIA deputy director for operations, Lance Cabot, asks Stone to watch over his brother, Barton Cabot, who's recovering from injuries, amnesia chief among them, after being beaten and robbed. Barton, who builds and sells reproduction antiques, lives in Connecticut, as luck would have it, near a cottage Stone owns. The plot centers on a missing 18th-century mahogany secretary, which is worth in the neighborhood of $24 million, and the theft of hundreds of gold coins from the South Vietnamese government when Barton was commanding a regiment there during the Vietnam War. As always, Stone gets to bed several new beautiful women in the course of pursuing the case. Series fans will find all their expectations nicely fulfilled. Author tour.(Sept.)

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