In the latest installment in the Stone Barrington series, Stone's former paramour, Arrington Calder, calls him to Bel-Air to help her out. Vance, Arrington's late husband, left her a great deal of shares in Centurion, the studio for which he made a multitude of movies. Centurion is now for sale, and Arrington calls on Stone's considerable skills as an attorney to represent her in that sale.

Stone flies (in his own private jet, which he pilots) to Bel-Air at once with his best friend Dino, who is also a lieutenant in the NYPD. Once there, he immediately becomes acclimated to the life of the nouveau riche and somewhat famous (or infamous). However, the handling of the sale quickly turns into much more as Stone discovers that the attorney who handled the sale of Arrington's house was unscrupulous. In no time at all, he is representing her in a multitude of matters.

Meanwhile, the sale of the studio turns ominous as shareholders who are against the sale start dying suspicious deaths. Fortunately, one of the Stone's newest clients is Strategic Services, a company specializing in keeping people safe. Soon, Arrington has the best security around her, and Stone and Dino are scrambling not only to secure the future of Centurion but also to secure their own personal safety as they have a brush with death, too.

Mr. Woods hits his stride once again in this book. Stone is back to doing what he does best - using his adept lawyering mind to leverage his clients into the advantageous positions, while leaving the bulk of the detective work to Dino, which is as it should be. As in most of the books in this series, Stone has no trouble finding female companionship but it wasn't nearly as gratuitous as it has been in the past few books. I also appreciated that the flight scenes, while present, weren't laborious to read. Overall, this was one of the best books by Mr. Woods that I've read in a few years, and I've read each and every one of them.