by Stuart Woods

Signet, February, 2003.
Paperback, 340 pages.
ISBN: 0451208080

Stone Barrington, ex-cop, attorney and troubleshooter is off to London for his latest adventure. A mysterious new client, John Bartholomew hires Stone to go to London to find his wayward niece. It seems that the niece has taken up with an undesirable young man, and Bartholomew wants his niece home and the undesirable young man put in jail. Money is no object with the new client, and Stone travels first class all the way: he takes the Concorde to London and stays at the luxurious Connaught hotel with a very generous expense account. But Stone's client hasn't been entirely truthful with him, and soon Stone is up to his ears in beautiful women, spies, cops, lies and betrayal. Can Stone solve the mystery of what is really going on in London while keeping himself and his various lady friends alive?

To be sure, there's not a lot of doubt that our man Stone will get the job done, but that's not really the point in the Stone Barrington novels. With all his womanizing, one might think that Stone would not be terribly attractive to female readers in 2003 -- but he is. He's an urbane, sophisticated and intelligent man with just enough dose of the Bad Boy to keep the good girls coming back for more. Stuart Woods is one of the most consistently entertaining writers today. His writing is fast-paced, witty and very funny, and The Short Forever makes a great diversion from today's grim headlines.

-Claire E. White

The Short Forever is available for purchase on Amazon.com

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This review was published in the March, 2003 of The Internet Writing Journal.

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