Stone Barrington Series, order and capsules...

1. New York dead
With New York Dead Stuart Woods delivers his most exciting work, this one set on the meanest streets of New York City, the canyons and avenues of the posh Upper East Side.

Everyone is always telling Stone Barrington that he's too smart to be a cop, but it's pure luck that places him on the streets in the dead of night, just in time to witness the horrifying incident that turns his life inside out.

Suddenly he is on the front page of every New York newspaper, and his life is hopelessly entwined in the increasingly shocking life (and perhaps death) of Sasha Nijinsky, the country's hottest and most beautiful television anchorwoman.

The pressures from the press are exceeded only by those from the N.Y.P.D. brass and city hall. No matter where he turns, the case is waiting for him, haunting his nights and turning his days into a living hell. Stone finds himself caught in a perilous web of unspeakable crimes, dangerous friends, and sexual depravity that has throughout it one common thread: Sasha.

A gritty, high voltage novel, packed with interwoven story lines and surprising twists, New York Dead draws the reader into its stunning tale of intricate suspense and leads to a heart stopping climax you won't soon forget.

2. Dirt
Dirt takes place in the world of gossip columnists in New York and L.A. Amanda Dart, known as the "High Bitch Queen" of columnists has been exposing the peccadilloes of the glitterati for decades, carefully keeping quiet her own secret sex life with a series of very discreet boyfriends. Then, when a photographer bursts into a hotel suite, where Amanda is administering to her current beau, and takes extremely revealing photographs, her life is turned upside down, just as she has been turning other lives upside down for all these years.

What's more, the following day a fax arrives on her office machine, a scandal sheet called, of course, Dirt, revealing all about her to the world. Yes, she even discovers that the fax has been sent to opinion makers throughout the city. Now Amanda has to attend the usual openings and parties and face everyone who hates her, everyone who has now seen a photograph of Amanda performing a deliciously vile act upon her lover. Amanda does not like this.

Enter Stone Barrington, who you will remember from Stuart's earlier novel, New York Dead. Stone is an ex-aop, now a lawyer and sometime investigator, and Amanda's lawyer puts them together. Stone finds himself hunting a wisp of smoke, a person who sends faxes from a series of copy shops around New York City, never using the same one twice. Inspite of nearly impossible odds, Stone and a couple of ex-cop buddies begin to make some progress in their investigation, and Stone's new girlfriend, Arrington Carter ("Stone, you and I must NEVER marry."), seems to be right in the middle of the whole thing.

Amanda gets madder and madder and crazier and crazier and, by the time Stone works the whole thing out, she and everybody else in the book gets his just desserts, some more than others.

3. Dead in the water
In Dead in the Water, Stone has hardly arrived in St. Marks, a lovely Caribbean island nation, on a sailing vacation, when something very strange happens: a beautiful young woman sails into the harbor, entirely alone on a large yacht. Before long, she is under the intense scrutiny of the local authorities, in the very considerable person of Sir Winston Sutherland, the minister of justice. The problem is, though she arrived alone, she had departed the other side of the Atlantic in the company of her husband, a well-known writer, who is no longer in evidence.

Evidence is what fascinates Stone Barrington, and before many pages have turned, he is all that stands between the apparently innocent Allison Manning and the patently evil intent of Sir Winston, whose motives are unclear. What is clear is that the St. Marks system of justice bears little resemblance to the American courts to which Stone is accustomed, and that his smallest error could prove fatal to his client.

Inextricably caught in a swirling storm of island madness and murder, made worse by a hurricane of sensational press coverage, Stone can hardly find the time to indulge in his usual romantic inclinations, while learning that, even under the intense illumination of a Caribbean sun, nothing is what it seems to be, and no one can be trusted.

4. Swimming to Catalina
At the end of the last Stuart Woods novel, Dead in the Water, lawyer/investigator Stone Barrington suffered a loss - that of his lover, Arrington ("we must never marry") Carter, who has fallen under the spell of, and married, film star Vance Calder, known in Hollywood as the new Cary Grant.

Then Stone gets a phone call from Calder: Arrington has vanished, and Calder refuses to call the police. The film star believes that only Stone can find her. Within the hour, Stone is on a studio jet to L.A. Alarmed by Arrington's disappearance and baffled as to why Vance Calder would want her former lover looking for her, Stone is pitched head first into the Hollywood maelstrom - a business he doesn't understand and people he can't trust, whose motives are so carefully concealed that Stone doesn't even know who wants Arrington back and who doesn't.

The assignment to find Arrington turns out to be the most dangerous of Stone's checkered career. Powerful people are gunning for him, and the women, although beautiful, are treacherous. Where is Arrington? Why did she disappear? Does her husband really want her back? Stone learns the answers, but he doesn't necessarily like them.

5. Worst fears realized
Stuart Woods brings back one of his most popular characters, Stone Barrington, in his fifth novel of the life and times of the former cop turned lawyer turned investigator. Stone is in a position that every ex-policeman dreads - all around him people are dying, and he suspects the killer may be someone he'd put in prison years before.
Dino Bacchetti, Stone's ex-partner, now the head of detectives in the 19th Precinct, is not immune, either, and the two men must pool their resources to protect those close to them.

Stone's former love, Arrington, now married to movie star Vance Calder, is back, too, and nose to nose with a new woman in Stone's life, one with a Mafia bloodline who may be as dangerous as she is beautiful.

Stone and Dino begin to trace their tracks from years before looking for clues that might lead them to the brilliant killer. From a premier table at the legendary Elaine's to dark back alleys where Armani-clad mobsters with the latest lethal accessories dwell, this nail-biting suspense tale takes Stone on a life-and-death hunt that twists and turns till the very end; a gripping thrill ride that will test him as no case has ever done before. Racing to find a killer, Stone can only pray that his worst fears won't be realized.

6. L.A. dead
Woods's new novel, L.A. Dead, is a scintillating tale of romance and murder that stretches from the Grand Canal of Venice to the mansions of Bel-Air, with a cast of characters who display the best and worst of the Hollywood milieu. Stone's relationship with Dolce, the daughter of a "retired" Mafia chieftain takes a new turn, and then their plans are shattered by events half a world away. Soon Stone is up to his neck in a baffling murder case that threatens his old love, Arrington, while offering him a new chance for a life he once desperately wanted. But now that it is within his grasp, will he want it again?

With his former NYPD partner, Dino Bacchetti, at his side, Stone plumbs the depths of Hollywood society, and dredges up enough dirt to end the careers of some and send others to prison. The novel climaxes in a court trial that will either condemn or set free an old love, with the hounds of the tabloid press baying at the courthouse doors.

7. Cold paradise
Cop-turned-lawyer Stone Barrington has the street smarts, dry wit, and debonair charm his fans love, and Palm Beach, the setting of his new adventure, is his most glamorous scene-of-the-crime yet. In Cold Paradise, he becomes reacquainted with a case he thought was buried years ago, and must settle romantic entanglements that haunt him still.

Allison Manning, the beautiful and enigmatic woman Stone defended against a murder charge in Dead in the Water, mysteriously reappears to request his help with a set of problems she has never resolved, which involve millions of dollars. She fears, too, that somebody might be stalking her, but she’s not sure who—or why. She knows of no one better than Stone, who has both the legal experience and the investigative instincts to guarantee her safety today and make sure she survives tomorrow as well.

Stone is happy to enjoy a few days of paradise in the sun—and to have left frigid New York and the tempestuous Dolce Bianchi behind—but before he can dig into this latest case, he comes face to face again with Arrington Calder, the one woman who still holds a key to his affections.

Stone and his partner, Dino, comb the glittering streets of Palm Beach and begin to suspect that more than one person might be after Allison: one so clever he manages never to show his face, but even more frightening, another man everybody has long forgotten. In a search that ranges from the boardrooms of Manhattan to the sumptuous villas that line the Gold Coast, Stone uncovers the sly and greedy plan to steal millions of dollars—and reveals the crafty killer behind it—in this electrifying new thriller.

8. The short forever
Stone Barrington is back! This time, Stone is paid a visit by a new client, who has an unusual request. The man is well-recommended, so Stone takes on the job, which involves traveling to another country, ruining a man's reputation, having him jailed, if possible, and bringing someone else back with him. Not the sort of thing Stone usually does, but the money is good and the destination interesting, not least because an old love lives there.

But what the NYPD detective-turned-lawyer discovers on arrival is not what he expected, and neither, in fact, is his old love quite the same. Almost immediately, he is drawn into an intrigue which includes a possible murder, terrorism, kidnapping, industrial espionage and the attention of the local police, plus the intelligence services of at least three countries. As one character puts it, "Someone is selling something he shouldn't be selling to someone who shouldn't be buying it."

What transpires could cost Stone his reputation and a great deal of money, not to mention his life, and he faces it all with the help of his intrepid former partner, Dino Bacchetti.

9. Dirty work
Stone Barrington hits the streets of Manhattan in search of a dangerous woman-and the motivations behind the murder of a very rich husband-in this sexy new thriller in the New York Times bestselling series.

Back in New York City after the London adventure of The Short Forever, cop-turned-lawyer Stone Barrington is approached by a colleague at the firm of Woodman & Weld who needs help with a celebrity divorce case. Elena Marks, a department store heiress, must have proof of her layabout husband's infidelity before she can begin divorce proceedings. But when the undercover work Stone sets up turns dirty - and catastrophic - leaving the errant husband dead and the mystery woman gone-without-a-trace, Stone must clear his own good name and find a killer hiding among the glitterati of New York's high society.

Carpenter, the beautiful British intelligence agent introduced in The Short Forever, arrives in New York to begin an investigation of her own, one she refuses to discuss with Stone. When he suspects that her case is strangely connected to the dead husband's, Stone knows that he and Dino, his former NYPD partner, are about to face the most bizarre and challenging assignment of their very colorful careers.

10. Reckless abandon
In Reckless Abandon, the smooth and charming ex-cop-turned-lawyer, Stone Barrington, returns - this time on the hunt for a killer with the guts to think he can hide out among the crowds of New York City. What this fugitive does not know can definitely hurt him: Stone's partner in this endeavor is none other than Holly Barker, the Orchid Beach, Florida police chief, and the protagonist of three earlier novels, who is consumed with the idea of putting this man behind bars.

This man, Trini Rodriguez, who Holly thought had been put down in Blood Orchid, has committed audacious and shocking crimes in Florida and is now being protected by none other than the federal government.

Stone and Holly, already in danger from Trini's friends, face their greatest obstacle in the government insiders who profess to have the public's best interests at heart.

11. Two-dollar bill
Two-Dollar Bill delivers all the storytelling twists and whip-smart banter readers have come to love in Stuart Woods’s thrillers. In this latest, Stone Barrington, the suave Manhattan cop turned lawyer, is back on his home turf facing down a brilliant southern flimflam man. The fun—and action—begins with what Stone believes will be a quiet dinner with his ex-partner, Dino, when they are interrupted by Billy Bob, a filthy-rich, smooth-talkin’ Texan, who strolls in with the head of Stone’s law firm and, unwrapping his wad of rare two-dollar bills, announces he’s in town “to make money” and in need of an attorney—namely, Stone—to handle his affairs. No sooner have they sealed the deal with a handshake than the roller-coaster ride begins.

Soon Stone is caught between a beautiful federal prosecutor and a love from his past, a con man with more aliases than hairs on his head, and a murder investigation that could ruin them all. In this stylish adventure in the bestselling series, Woods proves once again that he’s at the top of his game.

12. Dark harbor
In the picturesque island village of Dark Harbor, Maine, the shocking deaths of three people close to him have cast a long shadow over the life of Stone Barrington. One of them had a prominent national security role, and the consequences of his death reach high into the United States intelligence community, widening what, at first, appears to be simply a senseless, but local, triple murder.

With the help of his ex-partner, Dino, and his friend Holly Barker, Stone must piece together the elusive facts surrounding these deaths, as much for his own peace of mind as anything else. Dark Harbor brings us the perfect mix of sexy intrigue and swift suspense that legions of fans have come to expect from master storyteller Stuart Woods.

13. Fresh disasters
Stone embarks on his most dangerous adventure yet when a chance encounter with the wrong man sends him straight into the heart of New York's Mafia underworld.

It starts as just another late night at Elaine's and ends with Stone forced to deal, yet again, with the hapless Herbie Fisher, the bane of his existence. Stone finds that what should have been a throwaway case instead leads right to a powerful mob boss with a notoriously bad temper and long reach. Fortunately for Stone, the twists of the case also take a more congenial turn-sending a little romance his way, and giving him another opportunity to try to rescue a beautiful woman in distress. But as the danger deepens, Stone is left to wonder if he can disentangle himself from this lawless mess before he winds up-as his friend Dino likes to put it-"at the bottom of Sheepshead Bay with a concrete block up his ass."

14. Shoot him if he runs
In the latest off-beat thriller from Stuart Woods, Stone Barrington and Holly Barker find themselves summoned to Washington for a high-level briefing on a fugitive who is driving the C.I.A. crazy, and who is beginning to look like an unwelcome factor in an approaching presidential election. In less time that he would have thought possible, Stone finds himself, along with his friends, Holly and Dino, back on the island of St. Marks, which Stone first visited in an earlier novel, Dead in the Water.

St. Marks is a vacationer’s paradise of white sand beaches and luxurious oceanfront hideaways. But its exclusive yacht clubs and secluded mountain villas are home to corrupt local politicians and more than a few American ex-pats with murky personal histories. Despite the moneyed glitz and the glorious scenery, Stone, Holly and Dino soon discover that in St. Marks, everyone is hiding something, and the man they’re looking for may just be hiding in plain sight.

Besieged on one side by the local authorities and on the other by impossible demands from C.I.A. Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, Stone and friends fight their way through a web of secrecy toward their quarry, burdened with orders they don't really want to follow.

15. Hot mahogany
Stone Barrington returns to take on an underworld of crime that gives a new meaning to “old money.”

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 blue-bloods 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 the 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.

16. Loitering with intent
Stone Barrington is back, in a tropical thriller where appearances can be deceiving...

Running low on cash and unlucky in love, Stone Barrington is not having a good week. After a night at Elaine’s, his luck seems to improve when he’s hired to do a little discreet detective work in the balmy paradise of Key West. But despite its clear blue skies, palm-lined streets, and gingerbread mansions, Key West proves to be more dangerous than Stone had anticipated. Drugs, fraud, and a mysterious death from the past may be inextricable linked to what had seemed an open-and-shut case; and a sudden turn of events will test the limits of the law, and Stone’s willingness to go the extra mile for a client.

17. Kisser
Stone Barrington is back in New York and looking forward to some downtime working cases for Woodman & Weld that the prestigious law firm does not wish to be seen to be associated with. But when he crosses paths with a fetching Broadway actress—and sometime lip model—Stone gets a little more deeply involved with show business than he’d expected.

Then the fleecing of a wealthy art dealer’s daughter leads him into the worlds of financial fraud, Big Art, and Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where opulent co-op apartments are hung with multimillion-dollar paintings, and where family scandals never remain hidden for long. No stranger to high society or the foibles of the rich, Stone soon realizes he must uncover the truth in a world where wealth and beauty may come at an unusually high price...

18. Lucid intervals
It seems like just another quiet night at Elaine's. Stone Barrington and his former cop partner Dino are enjoying their drinks when in walks former client and all-around sad sack Herbie Fisher… with a briefcase full of cash and in need of a lawyer.

But while he’s trying to fend off Herbie, Stone is propositioned by another potential client, this one a bit more welcome. A beautiful MI6 agent, Felicity Devonshire has a missing persons case she needs solved—and she knows from experience how very useful Stone can be.

Stone’s investigation takes him into the posh world of embassy soirees and titled privilege, where high society meets government intrigue. And when trouble follows him from his luxurious Manhattan brownstone to his tranquil summer home in Maine, Stone has to decide what to do with the explosive information he’s uncovered.

19. Strategic moves
Stone Barrington is enjoying his usual dinner at Elaine’s when a new and lucrative opportunity comes his way. It seems Stone’s discreet handling of super-wealthy clients has earned him a place in the most elite of white-shoe law firms. But almost as soon as his elevation is mentioned, Stone gets wind of an impending scandal that could put some of New York’s rich and powerful in financial peril. In a world of easy wealth, Park Avenue penthouses and society galas, Stone Barrington is something of an outsider…but one who always knows exactly what his clients require.

20. Bel-Air dead
In the Bel-Air district of Los Angeles, one of America’s wealthiest and most star-infested communities, Stone Barrington comes face-to-face with his past...

A beautiful Bel-Air widow, already one of the wealthiest women in America, needs Stone’s help to become even more cash-rich. At stake is the sale of her investment in—and the resulting dissolution of—Hollywood’s world-famous Centurion Studios. Stone is no stranger to the stylish and lucrative world of Centurion... and he has more than a passing acquaintance with the lady herself.

But when he arrives in Bel-Air to finalize the sale, the tranquility of that famous neighborhood turns out to be no more than a façade. One of L.A.’s most rapacious power brokers has Centurion and its unique real estate in his sights, and he will not be denied. Stone finds himself dragged into a surprisingly complex and high-stakes game, the kind only the truly rich and dangerously ambitious can play... and survive.

21. Son of Stone
After an eventful trip to Bel-Air and a reunion with his sophisticated (and very wealthy) former love, Arrington Calder, confirmed bachelor Stone Barrington is looking to stay in New York and cash in on his partnership at Woodman & Weld.  Not only is he a rain-maker of one of the richest white-shoe law firms, in town, he’s back in his element. Manhattan, after all, is his home, and no one is better than Stone at navigating both its shadowy underworlds and its chic high society.
But Arrington has other plans for Stone, and his life is about to take a turn he never imagined…

22. D.C. dead
Seemingly out of the blue, Stone Barrington and NYPD detective, Dino Bacchetti, receive a most welcome invitation from the White House. It seems President Will Lee needs their investigative talents—and legendary discretion—for a particularly sensitive case. For his part, Stone is pleased to discover they’ll be working with his former partner in crime (and in bed), CIA agent Holly Barker.

In the exclusive world of Washington politics, power and privilege often go hand in hand with private indulgences and clandestine affairs. As Stone’s investigation takes him from the multi-million-dollar Georgetown houses of the city’s elite to the luxurious apartments of Watergate to the private residence of the president himself, it becomes clear that even clubby, buttoned-up Washington high society has a scandalous side that its most favored members would kill to keep secret.

23. Unnatural acts
When a hedge fund billionaire hires Stone Barrington to talk some sense into his wayward son, it seems like an easy enough job; no one knows the hidden sins and temptations of the ultra-wealthy better than Stone. But as Stone and his erstwhile protégé, Herbie Fisher, probe deeper into the case—and an old one comes back to haunt him---he realizes that even he may have underestimated just how far some people will go to cover up their crimes…and plan new ones.
From Manhattan’s mahogany-paneled law offices to its dimly lit night clubs and modern penthouse lofts, the trail of entrapment and murder leads to a shocking act that no one could never have anticipated...

24. Severe clear
Stone Barrington is called to Bel-Air to oversee an exclusive event that will gather the top echelons of the beau monde: Hollywood starlets, socialites, politicos, billionaires from overseas. It’s a task in which Stone has a personal stake, and one that is made all the more pleasurable—though somewhat more complicated—with the arrivals of two beautiful women with whom he’s intimately acquainted.
But the grand occasion has also attracted a dangerous criminal group with sinister plans. The hunt to find them leads Stone into a complex web of deceit and misdirection, in a world where the intrigues of government intelligence collide with the clandestine machinations of the upper crust. As he draws nearer to his quarry, he realizes that the stakes are higher than anybody could ever imagine . . . and that the enemies he’s seeking might just be hiding in plain sight.

25. Collateral damage
After a productive trip to Bel-Air, Stone Barrington is back in Manhattan—and back in his element, ready to return to the world of deluxe fine dining and elegant high society that New York does best.
But then an unexpected visit from his friend and periodic lover, CIA assistant director Holly Barker, draws Stone into a dangerous game of murder and vengeance, against an enemy with plans bigger than they could ever imagine. . . .

26. Unintended consequences
Stone Barrington is no stranger to schemes and deceptions of all stripes—as an attorney for the premier white-shoe law firm Woodman & Weld, he’s seen more than his share. But when he travels to Europe under highly unusual circumstances, Stone finds himself at the center of a mystery that is, even by his standards, most peculiar. Two unexpected invitations may be the first clues in an intricate puzzle Stone must unravel to learn the truth . . . a puzzle that will lead him deep into the rarefied world of European ultra wealth and privilege, where billionaires rub elbows with spooks, insider knowledge is traded at a high premium, and murder is never too high a price to pay for a desired end. It soon becomes clear that beneath the bright lights of Europe lurks a shadowy underworld . . . and its only rule is deadly ambition.

27. Doing hard time
When Stone Barrington embarks on a trip to Bel-Air to check in on some business and personal concerns, he expects a relaxing break from the fast pace and mean streets of New York.  But trouble never takes a vacation, and it has a way of finding Stone.  A case that had seemingly been resolved has returned in full force—with lethal results.  And this deadly situation makes for strange bedfellows when Stone finds himself teamed with the least likely ally... a gentleman of unique abilities, who can fly below the radar and above the law.

From the high-stakes poker tables of Las Vegas to California’s lush beachside resorts, the trail of disguise, subterfuge, and murder leads to a shocking conclusion.

28. Standup guy
Stone Barrington’s newest client does not seem the type to bring mayhem in his wake. A polite, well-deported gentleman, he comes to Stone seeking legal expertise on an unusual—and potentially lucrative—dilemma. Stone points him in the right direction and sends him on his way, but it’s soon clear Stone hasn't seen the end of the case. Several people are keenly interested in this gentleman’s activities and how they may relate to a long-ago crime . . . and some of them will stop at nothing to find the information they desire. 

On a hunt that leads from Florida’s tropical beaches to the posh vacation homes of the Northeast, Stone finds himself walking a tightrope between ambitious authorities and seedy lowlifes who all have the same prize in their sights. In this cutthroat contest of wills, it’s winner-takes-all . . . and Stone will need every bit of his cunning and resourcefulness to be the last man standing.

29. Carnal curiosity
Stone Barrington seems to have a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  When Manhattan’s elite are beset by a series of clever crimes-and Stone is a material witness-he and his former partner Dino Bacchetti find themselves drawn into the world of high-end security and fraud, where insider knowledge and access are limited to a privileged few, and the wealthy are made vulnerable by the very systems meant to keep them safe. As Stone and Dino delve deeper into their investigation, they learn that the mastermind behind the incidents may have some intimate ties to Stone . . . and that the biggest heist is still to come.

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