Monday, March 8, 2021

Dirt (Stone Barrington series #2) by Stuart Woods (1999)

 


Stone Barrington is a former cop, forced into retirement by a department in which he never fit. Stone holds a law degree and after passing the Bar he is hired by a prestigious New York law firm to handle special cases.  He also maintains his own office where his services are more of an investigative than legal nature. And Stone sleeps with every woman he meets, all of whom are beautiful. As I was reading, I couldn’t help but wonder if Stone and James Bond had ever compared notes.

In the fast-paced Dirt, Stone takes on a blackmail scheme involving Amanda Dart, a nationally syndicated gossip columnist known as "the High Bitch Queen". Amanda receives a fax entitled Dirt containing details of her very private life and learns it has been sent to everybody who is anybody. The fax scheme soon expands to include Amanda's publisher, who also hires Stone, and the gay but closeted editor of a sleazy L.A. tabloid.

Stone is tasked with finding out who is behind the faxes and enlists the help of a former cop who ends up murdered. Stone finds answers hard to come by and his clients begin to take matters into their own hands without Stone’s knowledge. Tension builds as Stone discovers the seemingly random murder of his friend is related to the case.  There is a large cast of potential suspects introduced throughout the book.

Dirt is fast moving story with enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing until the surprising reveal.

If you like Dirt and want to read more about Stone Barrington’s cases, there are currently 59 other titles in this series. By the looks of it, Stuart Woods isn’t done yet. Each can be read as a standalone title.

3.89 stars on Goodreads, 4.4 on Amazon

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