Not a sterling outing. The story line is entertaining even though, as in all Stoen Barrington books, it strains credulity. Fast paced, funny, quirky is all good.

The gratuitous sex for the sake of sex has become tiresome, unless, of course, your target audience is 14-17 year old boys, otherwise, not so much. This all too frequent occurrence in Woods' formulaic output could stand to be dialed back a notch... or two.

I've been reading Woods' novels since his first, "Chiefs" back in the day, and enjoy most all of what he has written. I own most of what he has written, but he ought to have Stone keep his pants on a bit more and stop the incessant bed-hopping. ( )

While dining in Elaine's, W&W partner Eggers introduces a new client, Bill Barnstormer, who promptly proceeds to accidentally kill a prostitute while staying at Stone's townhouse. Turns out that Bill is major con artist, with a jailhouse agenda to kill Stone. Meanwhile, Stone gets romantically involved with the new DA in NY, and then matters get very confusing when Arrington shows up with her son. ( )

Even though he’s hazy about the reasons, Texas businessman Billy Bob Barnstormer has blown into the Big Apple convinced he needs a lawyer, and he has 50,000 reasons why he deserves help. Bill Eggers, the managing partner of Woodman & Weld, knows Billy Bob is outside his comfort zone, but he sees no reason why Stone, of counsel to W&W, shouldn’t help him, even to the extent of putting his new client up for the night. Big mistake. Billy Bob, it turns out, is a man of many names—Rodney Peeples, Whitney Stanford, Harlan Wilson, Jack Jeff Kight [sic]—who takes advantage of Stone’s hospitality to broil a steak Stone had been saving for a special someone, bring home a hooker and strangle her, place bugs all over the department, plant an embarrassingly hot handgun on his host and swindle him out of that $50,000. Stone’s current cookie-cutter romance with beautiful Tiffany Baldwin, the new U.S. Attorney for New York, puts him between the law and his client. But even after he’s wriggled off the hook as Billy Bob’s legal representative, his troubles continue. His erstwhile client, who’s much, much more than a common con artist, goes on a spree that suggests his only joy in life is giving ebullient Stone problems. Even when Stone’s former lover Arrington Carter Calder replaces Tiff in his bed, the instinctive warmth between them (“they came together as if they had never been apart”) is only a setup for more high-concept skullduggery and condign retaliation. ( )

One of the better Stone Barrington books. #11 and four books are skipped in the audiobook series, causing the audio listner some questions like: "Where did THAT come from?" Also, in the narration, Dino changed to a geeky sound in my ears; didn't like it much as he sounded somewhat punky.. The book contains a couple of factual errors, but is otherwise intriguing, fast moving and entertaining. Our hero, Stone, gets woo'd by the US Attorney of Manhattan and then it turns quirky. when FBI and CIA intramural fights erupt. "What's the CIA doing in internal actions?" I wondered. Woods does a good job suspending the reader by engaging with the bad guy and doesn't reveal his identity of until the book is mostly done. Nevertheless where's #12? ( )

One of the better Stone Barrington books in my opinion. Moved fast...in many ways. Another quick Woods read.... ( )