Dirty Work (A Stone Barrington Novel)

Stone Barrington serves of counsel to the New York law firm of Woodman & Weld, which means they are one step removed from any dirty work that has to be done for their high paying clients. Stone is asked to find someone to take pictures of Lawrence Fortescue cheating on his heiress wife so that, according to the terms of the prenuptial agreement, she can get a divorce and not pay him a cent in alimony. While the man Stone hires takes pictures, he has dinner with Carpenter, a beautiful espionage agent he met in England last year.
When Stone retrieves the pictures, Carpenter recognizes Lawrence as one of the agents in her unit who quit the service. The woman in the picture Marie-Therese, a deadly assassin who blends as well as a chameleon into her surroundings killed him. She has a vendetta against those people in Carpenter's unit and has killed most of them with the exception of three people. Carpenter intends to get her before Marie-These kills her but Stone is the wild card in this spy game with no rules.
The protagonist of this novel stays true to his own moral code even if it means working against his current lover. Stone brings a touch of class to the spy game, not waiting for foreign nationals who are supposedly the good guys, to make a hit on American soil. The antagonist of this thriller is easy to understand and even sympathetic when she agrees to a truce that Stone arranges. Stuart Woods knows how to tell a good story while showing his audience just how ugly the spy game can get.
Harriet Klausner

Pretty good story this time. I liked Marie-Therese more than usual for the antagonist - she was interesting, smart & ruthless. Stone was a little better than the last book I read. He did a few things besides hop into bed with every woman in the story.

What a read. Fast paced, strongly developing plot with a twist here and there, and characters that are at once believeable, Dirty Work is a book worth your time to read.
Stone Barrington is retained by Woodman & Weld to catch a wayward husband while he's seeding new pastures. However, the person he puts on the case ends up falling on the target of the investigation, killing him. One thing leads to another and we find that the person the husband was with in an internationally wanted intelligence agent nicknamed La Biche. This agent has sworn an oath to kill members of a British intelligence team of which the wayward husband was a member (talk about loving your work).
Enough. I don't want to ruin it for you. If you've read any of Woods other books you know you're in for a treat. I am relatively new to this author, but have found him to be a master storyteller. If you're new to Stuart Woods then I predict you'll be back after you finish this one.

Woods' books are always fast, furious and exciting and that is why I have read so many of them. But at a point they seem to all be the same with different characters. Therefore, a few years ago I took a break from reading his books. In the past six months, I ventured back in and am very glad I have. He is not supplying life changing literature here but what he does provide is fast, exciting action that is very enjoyable. In this case, Stone Barrington is reacquainted with his long-lost flame, a new love interest involved with the district attorney office and a former CIA contact. All this revolves around a billionaire impressionist with very dark secrets. As expected, the book is fast with many plot turns and once again, I'm on the Stuart Woods' bandwagon. Great books for the beach or a plane!

In "Dirty Work", the ninth in the cop turned lawyer Stone Barrington series by Stuart Woods, Stone stays close to home...no gallivanting to jet set hot spots.
Stone is assigned by the Woodman & Weld law firm (where he is of counsel) to get proof of an unfaithful husband. Seemingly routine, this assignment leads Stone into the murky world espionage going back to murders (assassinations)at least a decade old.
In this domain, the "good guys" are treacherous and the "bad guys" earn your compassion...and a deadly female assassin bent on revenge appears far more sympathetic than the MI-5 agent hunting her.
Mr. Woods has crafted another entertaining Stone Barrington installment with lots of sex appeal, intriguing plot and subplots with not a word wasted. The story moves at a lightning pace.
Stone's former cop partner Dino is prominent throughout and remains one of fiction's strongest supporting characters.
As always, Stone is a captivating, engaging, witty bon vivant with enough panache for a dozen men. Easy to enjoy without requiring a lot of time.

Somehow I missed this book in the Stone Barrington series, so I checked it out from the library. Even though this is the 5th or 6th book, I was still able to read it and not feel I missed anything in the series. I think that's a tribute to the author. In my opinion this was an easy, entertaining read, but it still kept me turning the pages. I found that Stone Barrington is back in NYC. My only problem with the story was that about midway the story got a little boring when "La Biche" kept changing her identity and it was hard to keep up on who she was at that moment. Overall it was an excellent, and not a serious read but still entertaining. Enjoy.

Stuart Woods knocks out a winner! I have read several of his books and like them all but prefer the Stone Barrington series which are a combination of detective, mystery, espionage and thriller novels. The plot starts off as a high profile divorce case for a very wealthy woman and quickly extends into an international manhunt as La Biche makes her appearance. The dialogue is entertaining throughout and the plot is full of surprises. Stone is colorful and pleasantly flawed with some bad habits we secretly can enjoy. The Griffon Trilogy (Pt. I)

Stone Barrington is a busy man in DIRTY WORK, the ninth novel in the series. Barrington is home in NYC doing dirty work for Woodman and Weld as always when the job goes way wrong and get complicated. While Arrington is absent from this one, Dino is busy in this novel and Carpenter...remember her from case in London? The story started slowly for me then grew on me. Not a favorite in the series, but a good beach read. Series RECOMMENDED, read in order.

Stuart Woods never wastes words. Take Stone's description of Herbie Fisher.."He was small, ferret-like, sleekly dressed, and annoying." I would know Herbie in any crowded room and there's the power of Stuart Woods.
I read Woods less for plot, more for Stone's familar style, and knowing that I will be rewarded with his unique sense of morality. And face it, he's a women's man with constant character...and, heck, he's even a man's man which he proves time and again in his relationship with the ever-present, long-suffering Dino. There are two great scenes with Dino - one, in a hotel restuarant in St. Thomas where their squabbling is even better than any characteristic married couple; and, when they lock themselves on the rooftop and debate on who will slide down the drain pipe.
Plotting is probably predictable and simplistic. Stone takes on the dirty work of providing physical evidence that a rich woman's husband is cheating to invoke a pre-nup clause. Said cheating husband, a former British agent is killed, thus bringing the beautiful British agent, Carpenter, to NY city and Stone's bed. This is "spy light" because Carpenter would never have divulged her operation quite as openly, especially given Dino's position in the NYPD. But Stone is never ordinary or predictable and proves yet again that he's no one's yes-man.
Dialogue is crisp, wity,and fun. Even though it's as quickly paced as Woods' other books, it doesn't diminish the story line. He sticks to the point, doesn't digress unnecessarily and when it ends, there's always something left for Stone's next adventure. Will Arrington return? Will Stone stick with spy light? Will he be in NY or in Europe next time? Will Carpenter reappear? I for one can't wait for the next episode!

If you enjoy complex stories, captivating personalities, and a steady pace of action, Stuart Woods creates an exceptional read. "Dirty Work" is also an unwitting case study into the peculiar mindset of modern liberalism.
Stone Barrington, the wealthy lawyer/ex-cop who is the protagonist of a number of Woods' recent novels, ends up hunting down a terrorist/assassin and ultimately decides to help her survive. Barrington is angry that the British are trying to kill this assassin, although she has been killing and adopting their agents' identities. The assassin is upset because the British have killed her parents.
Read the novel carefully and note how many innocent people die. Then note that Barrington is upset about the assassin's imminent death but not about the deaths of all the people she has killed. Through this view, you will catch the strange world of modern liberalism and how it rationalizes a selective morality that focuses only on the wrongs it wants to right.
"Dirty Work" is not only an intriguing novel but also a great study into the mindset of the modern left.

I've been a Stone Barrington fan for years. Somehow, I missed this gem. Stone gets involved in a complicated cat and mouse involving MI6 (or 5, the lines are blurred these day... ). The plot is complex without being overly so, the story moves swiftly and is not predictable. A must for SB fans,a great read for other suspense fans.

I am reading the Stone Barrington novels from the beginning and just finished Dirty Work. I loved it as I love all Stone Barrington novels. It really kept you guessing and held your interest. I love the banter between Stone and Dino. I highly recommend the Stone Barrington series.

Stone goes international again, and I love it. Very interesting twist this time as Stone is actually negotiating with an assassin in his legal capacity. Even though Stone and Carpenter didn't agree and parted ways a bit cooly, I have a feeling we've haven't seen the end of Carpenter and the agency she represents in England. Very good read.

I've always been fond of Stone Barrington. Well, after reading this little diddy, "appalled" would be a more appropriate feeling. I really can't believe Stuart Woods is the author of this giddy, illogical piece-of-fluff! Take some time off Stuart! This is not the kind of writing that will keep true admirers true!! I kept waiting for the book to get better. It didn't. After finishing it, I just sat in a dumb funk for a while, wondering why I had wasted my time reading the whole thing. Too bad.............

this is the first book featuring stone barrington that I read..and do the pages ever fly by! the book starts off in a totally different place than where it ends up..it's not intitially what it seems...
the characters are interesting, the action's great and the dialogue's very beleivable..a great read that I highly recommend.

I read "The Short Forever" first and thought it wasn't a bad story. I particularly liked the Carpenter character and wanted to read more about her. I also liked the detective, Dino. Stone Barrington was the least favorite of the characters I liked. I found him very shallow and too far left for my tastes, but in "Dirty Work", I was so disappointed I had to write this review. I should have read the reviews before I wasted my time reading it. Newt Gingrich had a great review and I could not do better than him. I would like the readers to understand I purchase books to get enjoyment out of them rather than watch TV or see movies. I do not purchase books to get some moral lesson from a far out leftist who doesn't know his butt from a hole in the ground. Stone Barrington's defense of a sadistic killer who murdered innocent people to achieve her agenda of killing all the British agents who had anything to do with her parents death is appalling. He even went so far as to say he ADMIRED her. That did it for me. I believe Mr. Woods is letting his own ideology overtake his writing and therefore destroying any enjoyment I could ever get from reading his books. Therefore I will be eliminating Mr. Woods from my list of authors to read in the future. Sorry folks, but if you're not a dyed in wool liberal, you won't enjoy this one.

What's not to like...good story...good characters...New York murders....justice (?) served. Stone & Dino from St. Thomas V.I. to NY, throw in the British secret service and the FBI and you're hooked. Enjoy!

Robert Lawrence is a horrid reader for the Stone Barrington series. His British accents are laughable, and he makes all of his characters (especially Dino, Stone's best friend) sound like morons. He even makes Stone, himself, sound like an unsophisticated jerk. I was very disappointed.

If you enjoy the Stone Barrington series, you will certainly enjoy this. This is easy to read entertainment that won't disappoint Stone fans ...well except for those that are looking for 'serious' drama.

I eagerly awaited another Stone Barrington novel, and was very disappointed in this one!! The characters (other than Stone and Dino) were very boring, and towards the end when I hoped for an explosive conclusion, I was even more disappointed. Hopefully the next Barrington story will lift my spirits about Stuart Woods.

Brilliant dialogue, seamless plot transitions and Stone Barrington. What more could you want? Keep up this level of storytelling, Mr. Woods. With great writing like this you deserve to be the number one bestselling novelist.

There was a vast improvement in the book compared to the previous books. There were hardly any typos and Stone seemed more aware of what was going on around him. Much much better. Those typos really irk me.