Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Foreign Affairs

Stone’s Throw

Stuart Woods does whip them up—soon after Naked Greed, his latest Stone Barrington novel is out, titled Foreign Affairs.

Barrington is a dashing, fabulously wealthy lawyer, who jets around piloting his private plane, stays in luxurious suites, has friends and lovers in high places, homes in glamorous locations, and the habit of slithering out of trouble with enviable ease. In fact, if a man like him did not invite trouble it would be surprising!

In the 35th Stone Barrington novel, the hero has to leave for Rome in a hurry, where his partner Marcel DuBois has closed the deal for a new hotel. As always, he meets a beautiful (but, of course!) artist called Hedy Kiesler on the plane. He doesn’t even have to make an extra effort to seduce the women, his swish lifestyle is enough—Hedy is upgraded to first class on the flight and installed in his expensive suite in Rome. (Though Hedy is an heiress herself, and her well-connected stepfather makes an appearance later.)

But a Roman gangster Leonardo Casselli, won’t let the hotel be built unless he gets his pound of flesh, so the under construction building is torched and Stone’s car set on fire. But the mafioso doesn’t know he is up against a man who has the US President on speed dial. It doesn’t come to that though, Stone simply calls his old friend Dino Bacchetti, the police commissioner of New York and his buddy Mike Freeman who runs a security firm, to take care of Casselli’s goons and protect Marcel, Hedy and himself.

In retaliation, Casselli kidnaps Hedy, and Stone will not stand for that. She may be a temporary girlfriend, but she is his responsibility. With so many resources at his disposal, it does not take him too long to find out that Hedy is imprisoned in Casselli’s well-guarded mansion on the Amalfi coast.

It happens only in a Bollywood potboiler that a don in hiding would throw a lavish party in his new home, so that Stone and his aides can infiltrate as musicians!  It’s a laugh-out-loud, silly climax, and the book is a light, enjoyable read— with such lazy plotting, it’s no surprise that Woods writes a new one in a few months’ time!  

Foreign Affairs
By Stuart Woods
Publisher: Putnam
Pages: 320

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