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.
Stone Barrington receives a rather unexpected phone call
from Arrington Calder, the ex-girlfriend with whom he has a
son. Arrington’s much older husband, the actor Vance Calder,
has just died, leaving her a fortune in Centurion studio
stock. Arrington has plans for the money and asks Stone to
represent her in the sale of the studio. But when he arrives
at her home in Bel-Air to finalize the deal, things take a
nasty turn. It seems many of Hollywood’s rich and beautiful
have Arrington and the studio in their sights, and Stone
finds himself dragged into a surprisingly deadly web of
intrigue.
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