Description:

From Publishers Weekly

It's double the pleasure and double the fun as Woods brings series character Holly Barker, chief of the Orchid Beach, Fla., police department (of Orchid Blues, etc.), onstage to co-star with PI Stone Barrington (of Dirty Work, etc.) in his latest adventure. Holly's come to New York hot on the trail of Trini Rodriguez, a bad guy she thought she'd stabbed to death in an earlier adventure. He's currently wanted for (among other things) blowing up a dozen people by hiding bombs in the caskets of two of his earlier victims and detonating them at the funeral. But finding him won't be so simple: he's been placed in the FBI Witness Protection Program and is working with the Feds and the CIA to catch an Arab terrorist group trying to employ the Mafia in a money-laundering scheme. Shortly after Holly takes up residence in Stone's guest room, the two of them are hip deep in the dangerous caseâ€"and likewise each other. They go at it so often it's hard to say what's going to kill Stone first: the Mafia, Arab terrorists or the athletic, all-night sex. Cross-pollinating all these characters from various books makes for some heavy-handed background exposition at times, but readers with no previous experience will still enjoy this amusing, full-throttle sex and crime romp. Stone's ex-partner and best pal, Dino Bachetti, head of the detective squad at the 19th precinct, sums up Stone's appeal, and that of the entire series, when he says of his friend: "Wherever you go, people drop dead, and women take off their underwear." That's it in a nutshell.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From

It had to happen eventually. Woods' two heroes, cop-turned-lawyer Stone Barrington and police chief Holly Barker, meet up to pursue a hit man in this new outing. Stone and Holly first crossed paths in Florida in Orchid Blues (2001), after her fiance was killed. Now, Holly is in New York, hot on the trail of Trini Rodriguez, who escaped from her clutches in Blood Orchid (2002). Trini is now under the protection of the FBI as a key witness in several cases, and they're not about to release him to Holly, who wants him tried in Florida for the murder of 12 people. Holly enlists Stone's help in tracking down Trini, and it should come as no surprise to Woods' fans that they soon end up in bed together. Trini continues to elude them, narrowly escaping every time they get close to him. Shady CIA operative Lance Cabot is back as well, and he wants Stone and Holly to sign on to help out the CIA on some sensitive cases. Most of the action in the novel involves chasing Trini, and while at times it's a tad implausible (a paid assassin locks the couple up and gives them a bottle of wine and a nice meal before attempting to kill them), it's never less than entertaining. Here's hoping Stone and Holly team up again soon. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved