From Booklist
Last seen cozying up to Holly Barker in Reckless Abandon [BKL Mr 15 04], suave detective-turned-lawyer Stone Barrington is lounging in his favorite restaurant, Elaine's, with his best friend, police lieutenant Dino Bacchetti, when he's approached by lawyer Bill Eggers, who has a new client who has requested Stone by name. Billy Bob Barnstormer is a larger-than-life Texan who wants to keep Stone on retainer and offers him a $50,000 check. Stone is skeptical of Billy Bob, especially when he overhears him setting up business deals with Warren Buffett. Stone's suspicions turn out to be right on target: Billy Bob disappears, leaving a dead prostitute in Stone's guest bedroom. The plot thickens when both Tiffany Baldwin, the U.S. attorney for New York, and Lance Cabot, the CIA operative who occasionally enlists Stone's help, express interest in Billy Bob, who is apparently guilty of everything from fraud to attempting to sell military-style weapons to enemies of the U.S. To make matters worse, Tiffany, who quickly becomes Stone's new love interest, and Lance are vying for jurisdiction over the case, and Billy Bob has made it personal, targeting Stone himself. Typical Woods' fare--fast-paced, glossy, and always entertaining. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Two-Dollar Bill: A Stone Barrington Novel FROM THE PUBLISHER
Stone Barrington is caught between a clever con man-who's just become his client-and a beautiful prosecutor in this stylish thriller in the bestselling series.
Two-Dollar Bill delivers all the storytelling twists and whip-smart banter readers have come to love in Stuart Woods's thrillers. In this latest, Stone Barrington, the suave Manhattan cop-turned-lawyer, is back on his home turf facing down a brilliant Southern flimflam man.
The fun-and action-begins with what Stone believes will be a quiet dinner with his ex-partner, Dino, but they are interrupted by Billy Bob, a filthy rich, smooth-talkin' Texan, who strolls in and parks himself at their table. He's in town "to make money," he says, unwrapping his wad of rare two-dollar bills, and in need of an attorney-namely, Stone-though he won't say why or when such representation will be necessary. As they leave the restaurant, however, an unknown assailant shoots at Stone and his cohorts-and the wily Southerner has spread his two-dollar bills around to everyone like confetti.
Against his better judgment, Stone offers Billy Bob a safe haven for the night but almost immediately begins to suspect that he's made several precipitous misjudgments-for the slippery out-of-towner has gone missing and someone has been found dead-in Stone's town house no less. Stone is now caught between a beautiful federal prosecutor and a love from his past, a con man with more aliases than hairs on his head, and a murder investigation that could ruin them all.
Author Bio: Stuart Woods is the author of twenty-eight novels.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Flashy Billy Bob sweet talks Stone Barrington into taking him on as a client and then putting him up when someone sends a bullet his way. And now Stone's in big trouble. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Jet-setting New York attorney Stone Barrington (Reckless Abandon, 2004, etc.) proves that you just can't be too careful about who you take into your house. Even though he's hazy about the reasons, Texas businessman Billy Bob Barnstormer has blown into the Big Apple convinced he needs a lawyer, and he has 50,000 reasons why he deserves help. Bill Eggers, the managing partner of Woodman & Weld, knows Billy Bob is outside his comfort zone, but he sees no reason why Stone, of counsel to W&W, shouldn't help him, even to the extent of putting his new client up for the night. Big mistake. Billy Bob, it turns out, is a man of many names-Rodney Peeples, Whitney Stanford, Harlan Wilson, Jack Jeff Kight [sic]-who takes advantage of Stone's hospitality to broil a steak Stone had been saving for a special someone, bring home a hooker and strangle her, place bugs all over the department, plant an embarrassingly hot handgun on his host and swindle him out of that $50,000. Stone's current cookie-cutter romance with beautiful Tiffany Baldwin, the new U.S. Attorney for New York, puts him between the law and his client. But even after he's wriggled off the hook as Billy Bob's legal representative, his troubles continue. His erstwhile client, who's much, much more than a common con artist, goes on a spree that suggests his only joy in life is giving ebullient Stone problems. Even when Stone's former lover Arrington Carter Calder replaces Tiff in his bed, the instinctive warmth between them ("they came together as if they had never been apart") is only a setup for more high-concept skullduggery and condign retaliation. How does Woods keep churning out bestsellers? By taking exceptional pains not to adulteratethe formula with any new character types, plot twists or ideas. Mystery Guild main selection; Literary Guild alternate selection
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