Strategic Moves »

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.

The new page-turning Stone Barrington novel from the perennially entertaining New York Times bestselling author.

Stone Barrington is enjoying his usual dinner at Elaine's when his boss at Woodman & Weld, the law firm where Stone is "of counsel," walks in, sits down, and hands Stone a check for one million dollars. It seems Stone's undercover dealings with MI6 have brought in a big new client for the firm, and they're willing to pay Stone a huge bonus and make him a partner.

But almost as soon as he's taken the deal, Stone gets wind of an impending scandal that might torpedo his big promotion: It may be that the lucrative new client whom he's introduced to the firm might be a Bernie Madoff in disguise...

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Woods's routine 19th novel featuring lawyer and man of action Stone Barrington (after Lucid Intervals), Barrington has a lot to celebrate: he's received a million bonus from Woodman & Weld, the prestigious New York City law firm of which he's "of counsel"; he can expect to make partner in the firm within a year; and he meets a beautiful widow, whom he's soon romancing. A murder close to home and a request from the CIA to help transport a fugitive, Erwin Gelbhardt, from Spain to the U.S., bring him back to earth. Gelbhardt, who becomes Barrington's client, reveals he knows the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, but as the attorney works to get him the best possible deal from the American government, the bin Laden business goes nowhere. Newcomers may find Barrington an emotionally shallow cipher, while certain details, like the British government in the age of the Internet trying to suppress a story by banning sales of the New York Times, may strike others as less than credible. (Jan.)