Edgar winner Woods's slapdash 61st novel featuring attorney Stone Barrington (after 2021's Criminal Mischief) finds Stone and Dino Bacchetti, his New York City police commissioner pal, dining at their favorite Manhattan restaurant when they're unexpectedly joined by CIA director Lance Cabot. Lance has a mission for Stone, who serves as Lance's associate director: "to provide a safe house for a person who shall remain unidentified, even with regard to gender." Stone agrees to fly this person on his private jet to England and keep them safe at his country house in Hampshire. The next morning, Stone meets this person, who's been smuggled onto his plane, after takeoff. She's Jenna Jacoby, a former model who has just gotten divorced from Texas senator Wallace Slade, an obnoxious jerk. Slade, who's not keen on Jenna's intention to testify soon before a Congressional committee about his unsavory connections to Russia, and a murderous henchman get on Jenna's trail, and the rest of the cartoonish plot centers on Slade's efforts to find Jenna and kill her. Stone and friends take countermeasures amid lots of light banter, good food, and great sex. This one's for die-hard fans only. Agent: Anne Sibbald, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Mar.)

Stone Barrington agrees to shelter a witness the CIA wants kept under wraps. Complications ensue. CIA director Lance Cabot, Stone's nominal boss, wants him to fly the unidentified witness out of the U.S. to Stone's estate in Hampshire, England. It's not until his private plane is aloft that Stone learns that his passenger is ex-model Jenna Jacoby, whose marriage to Sen. Wallace Slade (R-Texas) has unraveled so completely that she's ready to give testimony about a wide range of his nefarious practices--assuming of course she survives the murderous attentions of Slade and his enforcer, Harley Quince. The dastardly pair have no trouble tracing Jenna and her protector to Windward Manor, but Stone's connections protect his charge till it's time for her to testify. Even after she's finished that errand, Slade, correctly divining that Stone has taken his ex to bed, is more determined than ever to snuff her out. So Stone spirits her off to another of his houses, the one on the Beaulieu River in Maine, which turns out to be no more effective a haven than Windward Manor. The complications include an unexpected visitor who's promptly shot dead, Stone's wildly improbable brainstorm about how to take Jenna off the grid, and the gradual revelation that none of Stone's many domiciles is all that safe. On the other hand, the lack of secondary sex partners, international intrigue (except for that stint at Windward Manor, which might as well be suburban LA), and unbridled spending sprees makes this one of the most disciplined of Stone's recent adventures. About as good as it gets from Woods these days. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.