Dirty Work (2003) Stuart Woods is #9 in the Stone Barrington series.
More fine dining, drinking, and meaningless sex.
Hired to prove infidelity in an heiress’ marriage, Stone Barrington goes undercover.
But the work turns dirty – and catastrophic – when the errant husband is found dead, and the other woman disappears without a trace.
Now Stone must clear his own good name and find a killer hiding among the glitterati of New York’s high society.
Not bad.
A good psychological thriller.
A Stranger in the House (2017) has enough twists and turns to keep me interested.
Tom returns home to find his wife, Karen, vanished—her car’s gone and it seems she left in a rush. She even left her purse—complete with phone and ID—behind.
Police knock on the door. Karen’s had a bad car crash and is suffering amnesia from concussion.
Near the crash a murder victim is found. Had Karen something to do with that?
Good television. A murder mystery, politics, immigration issues and murky espionage as well as complicated relationships.
Collateral is a four-part British television drama …
… stars Carey Mulligan as DI Kip Glaspie, assigned to investigate the shooting of a pizza delivery rider in inner-city southwest London. …
… a complex web of characters who are all somehow connected with the story, which addresses attitudes to immigration with the maltreatment of refugees and immigrants by both uncaring people-traffickers and indifferent state agencies …
Jeany Spark is excellent as Captain Sandrine Shaw.
All good. I enjoyed some of the interesting cinematography.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
#8 in the entertaining Stone Barrington series is a bit of a romp.
The Short Forever (2002) by Stuart Woods has Barrington in England.
On the other hand, he’s hobnobbing with the rich and famous. Staying in a luxurious hotel. Driving unique and expensive vehicles.
When sidekick Dino Bacchetti of the NY Police arrives — a fish out of water — it gets really funny. 😀
The plot is complicated and confusing for most of the book. That’s OK because we are mainly enjoying all the many, many mistakes made by Barrington. Almost nothing goes right, not even the many beautiful women throwing themselves at him.
Barrington is just as confused as we are.
As someone put it on Goodreads “Anyone who gave this book a bad review might want to re-think why they read Stuart Woods’ novels. They are not classic literature. They are escapist fiction. You need to check your disbelief at the door.”
Actually, this might be a good entry point for anyone considering starting up with this long series of murder mystery novels.
Very good.
By the time Lucas Davenport was called in, the police were up to fifteen bodies and counting. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, when Lucas began to investigate, he made some disturbing discoveries of his own. The victims had been killed over a great many years, one every summer, regular as clockwork. How could this have happened without anybody noticing?
Because one thing was for sure: the killer had to live close by. He was probably even someone they saw every day….
I’m steadily working my way through the MANY prey books.
I’d started with the first books in the Stone Barrington series by Stuart Woods. And found them worth reading.
Funny. Engaging.
Absurd James Bondy escapism.
Stone Barrington, a former NYPD detective turned lawyer, who is of counsel to a prestigious law firm and handles sensitive cases for the firm’s prominent clients, but cases with which the firm nonetheless does not wish to be publicly associated.
As such, Barrington commands exorbitant fees, and a strong cast of recurring characters such as his ex-partner Dino Bacchetti, frequent use of the restaurant Elaine’s on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City as a setting, and Stone’s frequent exploits with women, travel, and fine dining.
I jumped ahead to try Distant Thunder (#63 / 2022).
Not much had changed with Stone. He’s richer. Yachts. Homes around the world. Fine dinning every night.
But I prefer the earliest books. This one felt lazy. Short. And unresolved.
Some Russian is chasing Stone … for some unexplained reason. Corpses turn out to be someone else — without much explanation.
Meh.
May 3, 2025
Pierre Poilievre will run in a by-election in the most conservative riding in Canada ➙ Battle River-Crowfoot, Alberta.
I ASSuME he wants to stay opposition Party leader for the next 4-5 years.
Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.
Is there any chance Quebec would vote for PP from Alberta in the next election?
In the rest-of-Canada, this ties Poilievre to Alberta premier Smith ➙ a right wing extremist who wants to be the 51st U.S. state. 😀
Canadians grew sick of Trudeau. And they’ll grow sick of Poilievre’s whining in the coming years. He’s already less popular than the Party, as was Trudeau.
No other Party wants to partner with the Cons in any future minority government.
Instead …
The worst of recent unsuccessful leaders was Andrew Scheer. I ranked him 0 / 100.
WORST case scenario would be replacing PP with someone like Scheer.
Thanks Bryce.
After 20 years having a family home in Parksville B.C., … I FINALLY got to lovely Milner Gardens near Qualicum Beach. It’s open Thursday to Sunday during the good weather months.
Prince Charles and Diana visited 1986. Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth stayed in 1987.
Vancouver Island University acquired the estate in 1996 and converted the private gardens to a public garden.
The highlight today are huge old growth Douglas firs, cedar trees, and rare rhododendrons.
Click PLAY or watch a preview on YouTube.
Tickets $5 – $14 / person in 2025.
Special events are hosted here including: Christmas Magic, Easter Bunny Trail, Spring Solstice, etc.
A few of my photos.
#7 in the entertaining Stone Barrington series of books.
I enjoyed this one. Expensive cars, beautiful women, and yachts.
Luxuriating in Palm Beach’s winter warmth, Stone is stunned to recognize someone he thought was dead. Former client Allison Manning is alive and well—and suddenly very rich.
Now she needs Stone’s help in squaring a charge of insurance fraud that’s been hanging over her head for years—and in getting rid of a recently acquired stalker.
Suspects abound, including an elusive writer, an enigmatic businessman, and Allison’s devious former husband. Only Stone can thwart the sly and greedy plan to steal the millions of dollars at stake—and the crafty killer behind it…
VERY funny. Entertaining and heart warming.
This is the Jesse Q. Sutanto follow-up to her hit novel Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. (2023)
Vera Wong was a lonely widow in San Francisco. Lonely until a man was found dead in her teahouse and Vera solved his murder. That was book 1.
She is surrounded by her loved ones, her shop is busy, and her son, Tilly is dating Officer Selena Gray. However, she has become bored and misses the excitement of her last investigation. …
Vera is inquisitive, meddling, intelligent, bold, and funny. She likes acting like a helpless old lady, but doesn’t like being one. She’s also curious, confident, outgoing, and not always politically correct.
“Sometimes, all an old lady wants is a murder to solve. Is that too much to ask for?”
In this one, Vera stumbles on to the story of an online influencer who has disappeared.
She decides it’s likely MURDER so begins a one woman investigation.
The plot doesn’t matter all that much. It’s how Vera feeds everyone she meets and bosses them around in order to improve their lives that keeps you going.
Vera’s an unlikely new friend and ally to one and all.
Sutanto said writing Vera’s character was easy because everything she says are things her parents have said. 😀
Here’s one A.I. representation of Vera.
That’s from a good review on K’s Train of Thoughts.
Rick McCharles 