Dirty Work by Stuart Woods

I discovered Stuart Woods about a year ago, maybe, after a couple of folks had recommended him to me. He's another one of those who meets two of my biggest criteria: mystery and series. I've been working my way through the Stone Barrington series, of which this title is #9 of (currently) 18. I pretty much just grab them off the shelf at the library when I run out of other things to read (i.e. I am waiting for something else to become available) and mow through them in a day or two. Not heavy intellectual reading, but entertaining.

So in this story, Stone once again finds himself with his pants around his ankles (literally and figuratively). Woodman and Weld (the law firm that he does the dirty work for) asks him to get proof of a husband's infidelity. So Stone hires the nephew of a friend to take some pictures through a skylight... and the kid ends up breaking through the skylight and onto the dead body of the naughty husband. D'oh! But did the stupid kid kill the guy, or was something more nepharious in the works? Well, of course it was the latter! And before we know it, British intelligence is in town and Stone is making nice with a pretty intelligence officer that he met in the last book... and everyone is trying to find the mystery woman that was photographed with the dead husband.

Ok, so it is once again an entertaining story. Woods draws the reader in and keeps the twists coming. This book actually had less gratuitous sex than previous ones... I'm not a big fan of Woods' habit of getting real descriptive with his sex scenes. I mean really... the story would be the same with or without it, am I right? Of course Stone's former police force partner Dino Bachetti has to come along and save Stone's butt once or twice... although sometimes it seems a stretch for Dino to HAVE to be there. The two characters have great chemistry, though, and there is this great scene where a woman at a neighboring table in a nice restaurant asks them if they are a couple because they are fighting like an old married one. LMAO!

So anyway, as I probably would with any of the books in this series, I enjoyed this book. I wouldn't call it totally mindless reading, but definitely light. If you haven't read any of these Stone Barrington books, though, I suggest reading them in order: Search Amazon.com for stone barrington novels in order