Shoot Him if He Runs (Stone Barrington Series #14) by Stuart Woods

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Shoot Him if He Runs is Stuart Woods's 35th novel, but his talents show no signs of slackening. Nor do those of Stone Barringon, his peripatetic covert investigator. In his latest assignment, the ex-NYPD detective receives an Oval Office call to hunt down Teddy Fay, a rogue agent who was long thought dead. To find the elusive Fay, Barrington and partner Holly Barker pack their bags and head for the Caribbean island of St. Marks. But appearances aside, this tropical hideaway is no paradise. Beyond the high-rise hotels and bikini brunches, there is enough dirty laundry to sink the entire West Indies. While sorting through it, Stone and Holly discover that somebody here is willing to play for very high stakes. A brisk thriller read.

From the Publisher

Stone Barrington embarks on an exotic adventure...

Stone Barrington and Holly Barker pursue a master spy and murderer in a tropical paradise that's getting hotter by the minuteÂ…

Publishers Weekly

Tony Roberts shows off his comedic and dramatic skills in Woods's newest addition to the Stone Barrington saga. The elegant cop-turned-lawyer's new adventure has a welcome lightheartedness. He, his crime-fighting paramour, Holly, and their friends Dino and Genevieve fly to the Caribbean island of St. Marks on a sub-rosa assignment from the CIA to find a homicidal rogue agent rumored to be living in disguise on the island paradise. Woods and Roberts guide us through what turns out to be mainly a lovely vacation for the quartet-with cocktails, elaborate dinners and brisk swims along sparkling white sandy nude beaches marred by an assassination or two and a few anxious moments at the hands of the island's police chiefs. The result is more diverting than thrilling, with Roberts adding considerably to the overall entertainment value via his sly use of amusing British, French and clipped East Coast American accents. One of the nasty police chiefs, for example, sounds suspiciously like Peter Sellers's irrepressible Inspector Clouseau. Simultaneous release with Putnam hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 6). (Oct.)

Kirkus Reviews

New York attorney Stone Barrington dabbles once more in international intrigue, unaware that he's out way past his depth. President William Henry Lee IV suspects that Teddy Fay, durable CIA agent turned vigilante political assassin, is alive and well on the Caribbean island of St. Marks. And Lee ought to know, since his wife Kate (Iron Orchid, 2005, etc.) is director of the CIA. The first couple plan to send CIA operative Holly Barker into the breach once more, with an eligible man accompanying her so that she won't stick out like a sore spinster. Enter Stone, who arrives with Holly in St. Marks to find the familiar cast from his last visit (Dead in the Water, 1997) poised to go through their limited repertory once again. Thanks to a series of ham-handed cutaways to Teddy's point of view, we see that he is indeed hiding on St. Marks with his ex-CIA inamorata, Irene Foster, but we're not privy to his cover identity or his new plan. While Stone and his excruciatingly familiar cohorts tangle with Col. Croydon Croft, the bullyboy enforcer of St. Marks, fresh rounds of agency infighting back home spawn a series of sharply contradictory mandates about what to do next. In the hands of John le Carre, these mixed messages would produce a sense of delicate comedy or ironic disillusionment; with Woods at the helm, the effect is a muddled version of Who's On First. The fadeout finds Stone sexually satisfied and Teddy at large once more, leaving the author free to publish another version of this greyhound chase with an equally inconsequential endgame whenever he's so inclined. Despite stiff competition, this meandering Caribbean idyll is the most relentlessly unoriginal of all Stone's adventures.Other crimebusters live on in movies; maybe Stone will get a sitcom. Agent: Anne Sibbald/Janklow & Nesbit Associates

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