Doing Hard Time

August 12, 2013
Edgar-winner Woods’s smooth 27th Stone Barrington novel (after Unintended Consequences) takes the New York City attorney to Los Angeles, where Stone’s son, Peter; Peter’s girlfriend, Hattie Patrick; and friend Dino Bacchetti’s son, Benito, are headed to begin work on their first film for Centurion Studios after graduating from the Yale School of Drama. Two assassins, dispatched by Yuri Majorov, a powerful Russian, are tailing the young people on their drive west, but fugitive and ex-CIA employee Teddy Fay, who’s lying low as a gas station attendant in a small New Mexico town, ensures the thugs do no harm. Stone and Fay, who crossed paths once before, form an unlikely alliance as Majorov continues to send operatives to find and eliminate both Fay and the Barringtons for interfering with his various plans. Stone—wealthy, handsome, and suave—displays a father’s ruthless streak to protect Peter, while Fay brings a welcome gritty edge to his crowd-pleasing series. Agent: Anne Sibbald, Janklow & Nesbit.

September 1, 2013
Now that he's graduated from the Yale School of Drama, Stone Barrington's son Peter heads with his friends and movie collaborators, Ben Bacchetti and Hattie Patrick, on a road trip to La-La Land, little suspecting that a Russian mobster is determined to kill him. At least that's one of the plot strands here. Another is the continuing saga of Teddy Fay, the rogue CIA agent who takes to the road again after a stranger in his little North Carolina town looks funny at him. Teddy's path crosses Peter's in Paso Grande, N.M., where Teddy, using the alias Billy Burnett, has landed a job as a mechanic at a service station Peter pulls into after a blowout brings him within the sights of the two Russians following him in a Lincoln Navigator. Getting wind of their dastardly plan, Billy kills them both, buries them and the Navigator in a swimming pool-sized hole he digs with a backhoe, trades his recognizable Cessna for a nearly new JetPROP, and takes off for Las Vegas after telling Peter that the guys who were looking for him changed their minds and turned around. Peter's too distracted by Centurion Studios' upcoming production of his first movie to question this story, but Stone's not. Meanwhile, Yuri Majorov, the mobster supposedly killed at the end of Unintended Consequences (2013)--yeah, right--not only isn't dead, but vows to send more assassins after the two Teddy put in the ground in order to force Stone to sell him his interest in The Arrington, his wildly successful hotel. It's only a matter of time before Peter offers Billy a job, and the one-time domestic terrorist joins forces with Stone to get Majorov for real. It's a natural alliance, since both men are businesslike, resourceful, masters of many skills, quick on their feet and fond of casual sex. The nonstop action is certain to keep fans turning pages, even though the figures Woods is putting through their paces are plot functionaries rather than characters in any meaningful sense.

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August 1, 2013
It was bound to happen eventually: suave lawyer Stone Barrington teams up with Teddy Fay, a rogue former CIA agent Stone was once tasked with pursuing. Teddy takes a sojourn in New Mexico where he crosses paths with Stone's son, Peter, who is driving out to California with his girlfriend and his closest pal. Teddy intercepts a pair of Russian assassins who are gunning for Peter in the hopes of forcing Stone to give up his controlling interests in a luxury Los Angeles hotel. Teddy takes the killers out, a move which brings him the attention of both Stone and the Russian mafioso who ordered the hit. When the Mafia boss makes up his mind to dispatch Teddy as well as Peter, it's only a matter of time before Teddy and Stone realize their interests are aligned. Longtime Woods fans who have seen Teddy evolve from a villain to something of a lovable antihero will enjoy watching the former enemies work together in this exciting yarn. Is this the beginning of a beautiful partnership? Let's hope so.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Rock-steady bestseller Woods (37 novels and counting) reaches for a new generation of readers as Peter, son of his hero Stone, steps forward.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)