Publishers Weekly
Bestseller Woods’s lackluster 22nd Stone Barrington novel (after 2011’s Son of Stone) takes the New York City lawyer and his NYPD sidekick, Lt. Dino Bacchetti, to Washington, D.C. There, the U.S. president asks Stone, a retired homicide detective, and Dino, to look into a year-old murder case close to home. The FBI concluded that Brixton Kendrick, the White House’s manager “in charge of the physical plant and office arrangements,” murdered his wife, the president’s social secretary, then hanged himself, but the president and the first lady, who’s also the intelligence director, have their doubts. “FBI agents are not awfully good at investigating homicides,” the first lady remarks. Stone’s romance with Holly Barker, “an assistant deputy director for the CIA,” provides some heat, while further murders raise the stakes. A redundant subplot involving a fugitive former CIA agent adds little to the main story line. A fast pace compensates only in part for superficial characters with a penchant for spewing one-liners. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
Praise for D.C. Dead
“An exciting entry that possibly wraps up one of the longest-running story threads in Woods’ popular series.”—Booklist
“Engaging...The story line is fast-paced…fans of the series still will enjoy D.C. Dead.”—Midwest Book Review
More Praise for Stuart Woods
“Stuart Woods is a no-nonsense, slam-bang storyteller.”—Chicago Tribune
“A world-class mystery writer...I try to put Woods’s books down and I can’t.”—Houston Chronicle
“Mr. Woods, like his characters, has an appealing way of making things nice and clear.”—The New York Times
“Woods certainly knows how to keep the pages turning.”—Booklist
“Since 1981, readers have not been able to get their fill of Stuart Woods’ New York Times bestselling novels of suspense.”—Orlando Sentinel
“Woods’s Stone Barrington is a guilty pleasure...he’s also an addiction that’s harder to kick than heroin.”—Contra Costa Times (California)
Kirkus Reviews
Now that their sons have gone off to Yale in a blaze of triumph (Son of Stone, 2011), super-lawyer Stone Barrington and his friend Lt. Dino Bacchetti, NYPD, get called back to Washington to do what they do worst: investigate a murder. Talk about your closed cases. The very day that first lady Katharine Rule Lee's social secretary Emily Kendrick was found bashed to death, Mimi's husband Brixton Kendrick hanged himself, leaving behind a note taking full responsibility. Nor did an FBI investigation turn up any new suspects. But President Will Lee's not satisfied. He wants Stone and Dino to find out the truth. It's obvious that he's made a wise choice, because hours after going on the job, Dino finds the murder weapon on the White House grounds, where it had lain unnoticed for a whole year. Stone, pursuing his own distinctive brand of undercover work, learns that Brix was more than the White House manager; he was an insatiable adulterer, one of whose paramours, the one he playfully dubbed "the March Hare," presumably killed Mimi. This party wouldn't be complete without some strands left over from Woods' earlier work (Mounting Fears, 2009, etc.). So utility assassin Teddy Fay, spotted by hapless CIA agent Todd Bacon, rouses himself to offer a mutual nonaggression pact to CIA assistant deputy director Holly Barker. While they're waiting for this deal to sour, readers get to watch Stone bed Holly and two less fortunate ladies whose deaths mark Stone as a Calamity John and make it obvious, through process of elimination, who the March Hare is. Acknowledging the fact that everyone in the nation's capital knows everything about everyone else, Stone and Dino develop a mantra--"It's Washington"--that serves as the perfect model for another gauge of familiarity--"It's Woods."
