Book Review: ‘Quick & Dirty’ Finds Stone Barrington Involved With Art Theft

Well the run of great Stone Barrington novels has come to an end with Quick & Dirty (G.P. Putnam’s Sons; in stores on Tuesday, October 24) from Stuart Woods. It’s not bad at all, just not as good as the last three novels have been.

A few things are going on. High end vehicles are being attacked by people with sledgehammers in dressed in black. It happened to Stone and to his beautiful new client. When she walked into his office you could tell Stone was smitten. Even though he has an arraignment with Holly (who might just be the new Presidential candidate if you believe the press) Morgan is six feet plus of all woman. She needs Stone’s help and he’s willing to do it. Her late husband who died under somewhat mysterious circumstances when he fell from his penthouse apartment to the ground. A valuable painting when missing and now it’s time for the insurance company to pay up (they kept hoping the painting would show up).

Stone is asked to try and help find the painting before the check is cut. He doesn’t really suspect Morgan of anything bad but he is dating and sleeping with her so he has some time to snoop around. He puts New York Cities finish are cop on the job as well searching for it. The investigation takes Stone to the Hamptons and to some really bad guys, which puts Stone’s life in jeopardy and lands him in the hospital.

The more they investigate the more the bodies start piling up until they catch a break and get a lead on where the painting is and what might really have happened to Morgan’s late husband.

As I say every-time if you’ve never read a Stone book before no worries. Stuart Woods does a good job with giving back story about who is who and how they relate to the story. And these books are so easy to read. No useless story and the chapters are short and not a lot of words per page. Note to any editors or book companies, these are how all books should be written!