Dark Harbor (Stone Barrington Series #12) by Stuart Woods

From Barnes & Noble

Stone Barrington inherits a Maine vacation house, but like almost everything else in the life of this New York lawyer, the gift has murderous complications. The island home had been willed to Barrington by a relative, the central actor in an apparent multiple homicide/suicide. Stone can't believe that sweet cousin Dick has the making of a mass murderer, so he begins his own investigation. Aiding him are series regulars NYPD detective Dino Bacchetti, CIA agent Lance Cabot, and love interest Holly Barker. A pulsing sex and crime caper.

From the Publisher

Stone Barrington investigates the secrets of a CIA officer's suicide in this next thriller in the bestselling series Stuart Woods's newest bestseller, Dark Harbor, brings us the perfect mix of sexy intrigue and swift suspense that have earned him legions of fans over the years. In this latest thriller, Stone enters the picturesque town Dark Harbor off the coast of Maine, where the shocking deaths of three people have cast a long shadow over this island haven-a locale as mysterious as it is exclusive.

Publishers Weekly

Ex-cop/attorney Stone Barrington travels to the isolated island community of Dark Harbor, Maine, to handle the estate of his late cousin Dick, who was found dead in his home along with his wife and daughter. The police initially think it's a murder-suicide, but Stone disagrees and launches an investigation of his own. Roberts reads with a confident and assured voice, using a variety of subtle accents, ranging from Stone's mild upper-crust New Yorker to Dino Bacchetti's somewhat hammy New York Italian and the Eastern New England drawl of most of the island's residents. He also shifts skillfully between male and female characters; the combination of this and his skill with accents leaves the matter of which character is speaking never in doubt. There is one aspect of the performance that was a bit beyond Roberts, however. In a crucial scene toward the end of the novel, a kidnapper speaks to his victim through a voice modulator, and Robert's attempts to duplicate the mechanical altered voice comes off as silly-ruining the atmosphere of the scene. But aside from this quibble, the adaptation is proficient and should satisfy most audiophiles. Simultaneous release with the Putnam hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 30). (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Woods's 12th Stone Barrington mystery finds the New York cop-turned-lawyer on an isolated island off the coast of Maine. Stone's cousin, a CIA agent, and his family have been murdered, and Stone has inherited a house on Dark Harbor. Then a retired agent is killed, and more deaths follow in a tight-knit milieu reminiscent of the privileged secretive world of Charles McCarry's spy novels. Stone is soon joined by NYPD detective Dino Bacchetti, CIA agent Lance Cabot, and Holly Barker, Stone's lover. Dark Harbor is weaker than earlier entries in the series because Stone has too little to do, and, despite some red herrings, it is relatively easy to figure out who committed the crimes. Nevertheless, Tony Roberts keeps the often farfetched events moving along breezily. Roberts excels at Down East accents as well as the vacuous arrogance of teenagers. Recommended for popular collections.-Michael Adams, CUNY Graduate Ctr. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Stone Barrington takes a break from recent rounds of overscaled intrigue for an old-fashioned whodunit, his first since L.A. Dead (2000). Although the jet-setting attorney has seen his cousin Richard Stone only once in the past 20 years, this is clearly the week for news of Dick. First, Stone receives a package containing Dick's new will and a $1,000 retainer as executor of same; the following day, he learns that Dick is dead, shot along with his wife and teenaged daughter in an apparent murder-suicide. Even though the little Maine island where the Stones had been summering was so hard for strangers to reach that the locals think Dick must have killed his own family before turning the gun on himself, Stone's not convinced. After all, Dick had reason to be happy (he'd just nailed a promotion to Deputy Director of Operations at the CIA) and just as much reason to be wary (he's disinherited his older brother, and a foreign spy calls too late to warn him of grave danger). Flying his divorcing ex-partner, NYPD Lt. Dino Bacchetti, and his sometime lover, federal agent Holly Barker, up to Islesboro, Stone soon vindicates his late cousin-but not soon enough to prevent a rash of new homicides. The island is so dangerous, in fact, that in no time Holly's been replaced in Stone's smiling bed by Arrington Calder, the mother of his six-year-old son, who makes the trip from Virginia after Stone intimates that violent death has turned the island into an open house. In the hands of a lesser writer, some of these plot strands would eventually lead somewhere. Here, they tail off into more murder and a single kidnapping. Bet you can't guess who's kidnapped. Earnest and inept, although at least it lacks theheroic scale of such recent outings as Two Dollar Bill (2005).

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