Cold Paradise (Hardcover)

by Stuart Woods (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Suave, sophisticated Stone Barrington is a hero destined for the big screen. (Since Cary Grant is dead, Stone will have to be played by Bruce Willis, if he can keep his smirk under control.) He's certainly got the trappings: the Armani tuxedo too well-tailored to reveal the gun beneath the drape, the sexy sports cars, the beautiful women who never fail to throw themselves at him, the confident familiarity with a complicated wine list or French menu. And he's got friends in high places, which helps when you're looking for a beautiful woman who made a big impression on the slightly nerdy but nice software billionaire who hires Barrington to find her.

Between bedding the billionaire's chef in Palm Beach, hiding from the homicidal Mafia princess he almost married in Italy, and playing games with a Hollywood beauty whose young son may or may not be his very own child, Stone hardly has time to do the job he's been hired for. But when he does, he discovers that the object of his search is still another ex-lover, a woman he thought had been executed on a Caribbean island three years ago. All these women, and all these adventures, plus Stone's old pal Dino, a New York cop, will be familiar to readers of Woods's other Stone Barrington thrillers. This one has Woods's trademark narrative punch, solid pacing, and glossy, brand-name panache. If Judith Krantz wrote thrillers, this is what she'd turn out. But don't let that stop you. Cold Paradise is the perfect book for a hot day in the hammock or a long plane ride to a ritzy resort destination. The only real surprise is why Stone Barrington hasn't made it to the big (or small) screen yet. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly
In the seventh thriller featuring cop-turned-lawyer Stone Barrington and his old sidekick NYPD Lt. Dino Bacchetti, the prolific and urbane Woods is at the top of his consistently bestselling form. In the middle of a New York City blizzard, Thad Shames, a wealthy computer tycoon, offers Stone a small fortune and the opportunity to escape the arctic cold if he will fly to glitzy Palm Beach, Fla., and find a femme fatale Shames knows only as Liz. With the help of Callie Hodges, Shames's sensual young Girl Friday, Stone wastes little time finding Liz, but discovers she is really Allison Manning, a woman he saved from the gallows a few years back (Dead in the Water, 1997). Now known as Elizabeth Harding, she fears her first husband a murderer who Stone believed had been executed is alive and may be stalking her. Not to be deterred from wooing and wedding Liz, Shames asks Stone to protect her. Stone himself is besieged by women: first, the delectable Callie, then his old girlfriend Arrington Calder (L.A. Dead, 2000) and finally, Liz, who suggests a m‚nage … trois with Callie. In the midst of these amorous adventures, Stone consults Dino back in New York, trying to ID a man who fits the stalker's description, and Dino flies in just in time to be involved in a shootout in a Worth Avenue restaurant. Loaded with perfumed sex, sleek jets and yachts, lavish homes, boutiques, gourmet cuisine, quirky twists and nonstop action, Woods's pulpy pedestrian plot is grand fun. Simultaneous audio. (Apr. 23)Forecast: As frothy as ever, but more carefully plotted than L.A. Dead, Woods's latest should scale the charts, given a hefty boost by the book clubs (Doubleday and Mystery Guild main selections; BOMC and Literary Guild alternate selections), a national ad/promo campaign and a 15-city author tour.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition edition (April 23, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399147365
• ISBN-13: 978-0399147364
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #605,479 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 7 in The Stone Barrington Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A STELLAR READING OF A SENSATIONAL THRILLER, April 27, 2001

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Cold Paradise Audio (Audio Cassette)

Broadway, film and television actor Tony Roberts offers a sensational reading of the latest thriller by Stuart Woods. With a skill born of confidence and experience he easily segues from character to character in this suspense riddled mystery.

With "Cold Paradise," lawyer cum private investigator Stone Barrington returns - this time to the gilded streets of Palm Beach where he eventually confronts old friends and foes. Mega rich Thad Shames has asked Barrington to go to this playground for the wealthy to trace a woman Shames met at a party. There are a few perks on what initially appears to be a routine assignment, including a yacht stateroom and Shames' beguiling assistant, Callie.

Barrington locates the woman in short order but is surprised to find that she is Allison Manning, now known as Liz, the same person he defended against a murder charge on a Caribbean island in "Dead In The Water" (1997).

Allison is in almost as much trouble now as she was a few years back. She turns to Barrington for protection and to help find a mysterious man who is stalking her. Never mind the insurance fraud charge she's trying to outrun.

Barrington calls in his partner, Dino, for help as they track the elusive stalkert from Manhattan to the luxurious manses dotting the Gold Coast.

What a page-turner, what a setting, and what a reading!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Cold Decadence, August 22, 2002

By	John J. Grassi (Norman, Oklahoma United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cold Paradise (Stone Barrington) (Paperback)

Meet Stone Barrington, a Bond-like attorney/investigator/playboy with exquisite taste and dangerous habits. In Cold Paradise by Stuart Woods, Barrington suffers through another New York winter, but his outlook improves dramatically upon meeting billionaire software tycoon Thad Shames. Shames has fallen hopelessly in love with a mysterious woman named Liz after meeting her only once, and hires Barrington to find her. The only lead Barrington has is that she lives in exotic Palm Beach, so Barrington takes up residence on Shames' 240-foot yacht off the Florida coast, where he is soon ensnared in a web of conspiracy and murder.

Cold Paradise is the seventh novel in the Stone Barrington series, first introduced with 1992's New York Dead. Woods is an amazingly prolific writer, having already published dozens of novels and two books of non-fiction. One of his previous novels, Dead in the Water, provides the back-story for Cold Paradise.

The first seventy pages of Cold Paradise moves well, as Dead in the Water's Allison Manning reappears after swindling twelve million dollars in an insurance scam. The book is peppered with clever dialogue between Barrington and his sidekick Bachetti, and the setting is vivid, for Woods has an uncanny gift of making the wealthy decadence of Palm Beach come alive.

There are plot and character problems, however, starting with an inexplicable coincidence: Allison Manning is Shames's Liz. She is also Barrington's former client and lover, so things get complicated; Allison still lusts for Barrington, but so does every other woman in Cold Paradise. Before long Palm Beach is crawling with Barrington's girlfriends, past and present, and one needs a libretto to keep them straight. This leads to another problem--the author's inability to develop female characters. The two female leads, Allison and Callie, seem incapable of doing anything meaningful, their lives limited to shopping, cooking, and bed hopping. Barrington's ex-wife Dolce (Italian for 'sweet') wants to kill him for reasons unknown, yet readers can safely assume that her psychotic state was induced by Barrington's sexual persona.

Midway through the novel, there is a second case of mistaken identity that has no real function in the story except to distract the reader and waste a hundred pages. One wonders if Woods has been influenced by filmmaker David Lynch with his constant manipulation of identity, yet where Lynch dazzles his audience with a unique vision, Woods merely irritates his readers with trivial nonsense.

The discriminating reader may soon tire of the crass materialism in the book; conspicuous consumption abounds, with many references to luxury cars (Shames orders three Mercedes convertibles for his house guests), jewelry (Allison impulsively buys a $30,000 necklace) and designer wardrobes (the working-class Bachetti inexplicably goes shopping for an Armani suit). Woods's style in Cold Paradise is infected with narcissism, and readers may feel little empathy for these characters.

One can argue that books like Cold Paradise shouldn't be held to the same critical standard as more 'serious' fiction. If the author's intention is 'fiction light' (the argument goes), then critical standards must be adjusted or even ignored. Cold Paradise thrives in that curious realm of books targeted for beachcombers and frequent flyers. Undoubtedly Woods is mining this market.... Cold Paradise will appeal to past readers of the Barrington series; there is a formula at work here that is undeniably successful. In addition to the faithful, the book will attract the Wish-I-Were-Rich crowd, who can, at least vicariously, live the good life between the pages of this novel.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cold Paradise, June 13, 2001

By	Ricky C. Nelson (Commerce, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Cold Paradise" is the latest Stone Barrington novel by Stuart Woods. Stone is hired by rich man Thad Shamus to find a woman named Liz that he met in the Hamptons and wanted to see again. Stone travels to Palm Beach, Florida and finds Liz Harding rather quickly. Liz is actually Allison Manning, Stone's former client with whom Stone had a brief affair. Allison (Liz) retains Stone to do some legal work, and the rest of the book is devoted to finding Allison's husband, Paul Manning. For Stone Barrington readers, Stone once again beds a beautiful woman, Callie Hodges, Thad's girl Friday. This novel is not bad, but I expect better from Stuart Woods.