Turbulence (A Stone Barrington Novel)

His books are really getting repetitive. Stone meets women, beds them, gets into trouble, eat out alt, move from one house to another - need some new characters andnew plots. He has become a serial womenizer and not very interesting.

Woods was sleepwalking writing this book. He's filling more and more pages with fluff about airplanes, food, and real estate than plotting out a good story. Stone should be 300 pounds by now with all the eating & drinking he indulges This novel was anything but novel. The antagonist was not developed and if you like to read about flying fron one place to another this is the book. Give a good plot. Write more Teddy Fay books. He's an interesting character. Barrington has becone a narcissistic know-it-all who falls into bed with anyone in site. Dino & Viv should find another author to bring them back to life.
Maybe his next one will ve better.

Stone Barrington, his new girlfriend Kelly Smith, and his friends Viv and Dino Bacchetti are in Key West hunkering down waiting for a category five hurricane to hit the neighborhood. During the storm, the front door is blown open and a soaking man is hoisted into the room. It turns out he is the junior senator from Florida, Joe Box, a noxious character who has shady dealings with the Russians and others. He is also a predator who sexually assaulted Kelly.

Another visitor arrives: Dame Felicity Devonshire, head of the British foreign intelligence service MI-6, and the former owner of Stone’s house. She accuses Stone and his compatriots of being involved in a conspiracy to subvert international law. He and another man in on the plan, Lance, call her observation wrong. Felicity brings devastating news to the collected group: Selwyn Owaki has gone nuclear.

The group has been invited to a dinner party at which Owaki, a wanted man, will appear. He tried to kill Stone a while ago, and the powers that be believe he is up to no good. A bomb may be in his possession, or a similar type of weapon is hidden among his belongings.

According to Felicity, “A few days ago…a fully operational nuclear warhead for an artillery shell was…unlawfully removed from a NATO storage facility in eastern Germany, near Leipzig, which is about seventy miles south of Berlin.” Everyone is shocked and full of questions. Felicity continues: “All that matters is reclaiming it without mishap.”

Lance says that “Owaki is the only person with the connections necessary to market it, worldwide.” Felicity goes on to say that the warhead appears to be in either England or Germany: “What is to transpire during your evening is that a password will be spoken by someone in Owawki’s presence, and an exchange of envelopes will occur: Owaki will hand over one containing the location of the warhead, and will receive another containing a bank check drawn on an account at a Cyprus bank for a great deal of money.”

As the story continues to unfold, Stone and Kelly embark on a mission to stop Owaki and, if possible, take possession of the check, which will be Kelly’s if they can get their hands on it.

With his usual verve, Stuart Woods brings a sense of reality and candor to his latest effort. The suspense is ratcheted very high, and fans will surely enjoy this perfect summer read. TURBULENCE is Woods’ 46th Stone Barrington novel and is sure to rank as one of his best.

Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

Stone and his merry bunch of friends (New York Police Chief, Duke of Kensington, Head of the CIA) come across as the keystone cops in this one. Look, I've loved Stone over the years, having read every one of the books. Lately though, they've become filled with one unbelievable coincicende after another. Apparently Stuart can't seem to bring the good guys together with the bad guys except for at swanky restaurants and parties. Everytime Stone goes to a restaurant or a party, lo and behold, there's one of the bad guys. Where's the creativity from the earlier novels? It's become very predictable. Hey there's a madman with a nuclear bomb, the CIA says, let's send a New York attorney. Apparently Stuart thinks Stone is now James Bond but with a bigger budget. Two destroyed Bentleys and a Hinckley yacht later, Stone assists his new love interest in committing tax fraud, something the always morally sound Stone would never have done in an earlier book.

Now that Stone has saved the world from nuclear destruction, what's next? I predict that he'll develop some superpower. Oh right, he already has one - has the ability to produce the bad guys by simply going our for a nice dinner or attending a party.

I'll continue to read them, but they're far less enjoyable, and earn many eyerolls throughout. While I only give it 2 stars, it earned many eyerolls...

I used to love the Stone Barrington books, but lately they are just not up to par. This one has Stone and usual cast bouncing from one of Stone's mansions to another with Stone piloting his own (or borrowed!) jets, being chauffeured in super lux vehicles, and enjoying pampering by full time house staff in each location. This extreme wealth backdrop is all very predictable at this point, and the author's massive preoccupation with Stone's luxuries completely overshadows the actual plot.

The story line itself is unrealistic in that Stone is the only solution available to the head of the CIA in several instances to intervene in an international terrorist plot, which Stone non-nonchalantly agrees to. Of course this setup would be forgivable if there was any intrigue or mystery as as the plot unfolds. Sadly though its all pretty mechanical.

Its a fast read, but wholly unsatisfying.

What a yawner. Same ole, same ole. Barrington meets a woman, beds her. And the phraseology. I feel like going back to the book and count the number of times Lance says, "Quite." He's not English. What pretentiousness! And Woods has Barrington buying the best of the best, houses, yachts, cars. So tedious. I have been reading Woods for a few years and I am ready to read someone else instead. I loved the stories featuring other characters and the stories that had action NOT taking place in bed!

Ok this series has "jumped the shark". Now supposedly Stone Barrington is a contractor for the CIA (albeit unwittingly), and the Director of the CIA is personally involved in the on site operational aspects of Stone's actions. Not as good as most of the earlier books in this series, not by a Long shot.

I like reading about Stone and past characters from other books but this was a preposterous ending drama. No way could the Stone entourage get away with the spying they did. It was so unbelievably naive to make such scenarios, thinking readers would believe it feasible. Characters were brought in and just left without any explanation of what happened to them or where they went. Most far- fetched book so far. Not a fan of this one and I have read them all and enjoyed most. Not a well thought out odyssey.

Wouldn't download to my kindle despite multiple attempts including syncing reader and other recommended "fixes". Another book same day downloaded just fine. Only other time this happened was with another book by this author, and I have literally hundreds of books downloaded on two different readers. I finally requested refund.

WILL NOT DOWNLOAD, REASON PER the store IS THAT THE AUTHOR OR PUBLISHER HAS WITHDRAWN THE KINDLE EDITION. WHY, WHY, WHY. WOODS JUST LOST A READER. (AND THEY ARE STILL SENDING EMAILS OUT INDICATING KINDLE EDITION AVAILABLE}

I never read anything by this author, this was the first.
He's won awards, has written over 60 books so I'm sure he's very good, but I can't get into this one.
A bunch of billionaire spies jet setting setting around the globe.
I gave up half way through.

Pretty typical Stuart woods book. But that is ok because I like typical Stuart Woods books. Pretty much follows his usual plot line., but I enjoy reading about his new expensive toys. Liked it, but glad I checked it out from the library