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Cold Paradise

Cold Paradise

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $20.37
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: easy-to-read light entertainment
Review: Cold Paradise is the seventh in a series of Stuart Woods' books featuring Stone Barrington. Stone Barrington, a former New York City policeman, is a lawyer who is often more involved in investigative work than in legal work. The setting is Palm Beach, an appropriate setting for the rich and famous characters Woods enjoys using. The main story is Stone's attempt to protect Allison Manning who is afraid of her former husband Paul Manning, a murderer who is thought by many to be dead. In trying to protect Allison and resolve issues from her past, Stone unravels threads that include characters and stories from previous Stone Barrington novels.

Stuart Woods has written dozens of novels including an eighth Stone Barrington novel released in 2002. His first book, Chiefs, was awarded the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

The book includes some interesting twists and a variety of action scenes. At every turn, Stone connects with law-enforcement officers who have knowledge of Paul's actions during the years since his "death." Women from Stone's past appear frequently, often unexpectedly, and Stone's receives help from his colorful former partner, Dino, in solving this difficult case.

By failing to relate events to the main story or the various subplots, the author leaves the reader with a feeling that Cold Paradise lacks the connections that are needed in a good mystery. The focus of the story is Stone's search for Paul Manning and his efforts to protect Allison. However, in the initial meeting between Stone and Allison, she hires him to make a settlement with the insurance company and her concern about Paul seems to be an afterthought. She vaguely mentions seeing her husband and doesn't express a fear for her safety. Cold Paradise also lacks the character development that adds interest to a story. Perhaps those who have read the other Stone Barrington books will have a greater sense of the characters and an interest in their lives.

Cold Paradise is for readers who enjoy an easy-to-read mystery with continuing characters from previous novels.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The Author and Editor need to hire some help
Review: What a poorly written novel. There are constant errors throughout...on one page the author will say two characters met 3 years ago; 10 pages later he contradicts that and says they met one year ago. And this happens throughout! Ugh! If you are going to write, do it right!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Palm Beach Payoff
Review: Stone Barrington, high-money New York City lawyer, ex-cop, and sleuth, takes on a case that seems impossible at first. Thad Shames, rising young billionaire in the computer software world, met a woman once in a bar that he's decided he can't live without. Problem is, he doesn't know who she is or even where she lives. Enter Stone, hired by Shames to track down the elusive mystery lady that has won the geek billionaire's heart with a single glance. Hitting Palm Beach in elegant stride, always knowing which wine to order and which luxury car to drive, Stone turns up the love of Todd Shames' life in short order--while finding a new lady love himself. Of course, in a swiftly-plotted Stuart Woods novel, an experienced reader knows that only the tip of the iceberg has been touched. In no time at all, Stone is plunged into a world of deceit and trickery that reaches back into his own past. And while he's battling the tangled skeins of changed identities, dead men who aren't dead but who have had nose jobs, and fighting off the unsettling advances of Arrington Calder (whom he can't seem to get out of his system and who may be the mother of his child), he finds out his ex-wife Dolce (deranged and a Mafia princess to boot) has stopped taking her Thorazine and escaped the facility where she's been kept and is now on a mission to track Stone down and kill him.

Stuart Woods is the best-selling author of eight Stone Barrington novels, including the recently published THE SHORT FOREVER. He's written four novels about Will Lee and three about Deputy Police Chief Holly Barker. In addition, he's written a growing list of stand-alone thrillers, including the award-winning CHIEFS, which was filmed as a television mini-series.

Reading a Stuart Woods novel, no matter who the main character is, guarantees a slam-bang driving plot, lots of decadent elegance, and a compendium of brand-names showing how to live life as one of the financially elite. The writing is crisp and tight, but also light enough that the books can be picked up and put down without fear of losing the plot thread. COLD PARADISE perfectly fits that formula. Stone Barrington is a likeable hero and leads a life many can only fantasize about. Besides handling cases that get bizarre and twisted yet ultimately make sense, Stone also handles a bevy of beautiful women and lives the good life, serving the reader a glass of collector's wine and placing the reader in the shotgun seat of the world's sleekest automobiles. COLD PARADISE continues several threads that Woods has in the air regarding his series character, resolves a few of them, and ends at a spot that will make readers rush out to pick up his next novel to see what happens to Stone next. The pacing and plotting move the book along easily, and the copious amounts of dialogue make reading almost a sinful pleasure.

The only caveat that must be offered is that while Woods delivers a fast-paced story, he also cuts a few corners. Suspects are conveniently found rapidly, and with Stone's luck at finding things he should go to Vegas.

Readers of light mysteries and casual thrillers will enjoy COLD PARADISE. It's a perfect novel to take along to the beach and read purely for pleasure.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Wow, loved it!!!
Review: I have been reading Oprah books for over a year now and my brain was tired, so I picked this up in the grocery store isle for a lite read. Well I could not put it down. Now here I am on Amazon looking for the Stone Barrington Series. I was excited to learn there are stories leading up to this one and am looking forward to reading them. I hope they are as hot as this one!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Exciting book!
Review: I enjoyed reading Cold Paradise, a continuation of the Stone Barrington series in which characters from several previous novels (Dead in the Water, Swimming to Catalina, etc...) emerge in a highly coincidental fashion. My main criticism is that it seemed unrealistic that Stone, as a lawyer and ex-NYPD officer, magically is able to command the attention and resources of several law enforcement agencies who listen to his every whim. I suppose the rationale behind this is that his NYPD background makes other police agencies want to listen to him more than they would the average lawyer.
Otherwise, the books fits the typical Stuart Woods formula of being highly entertaining. I also liked how in this story Stone describes the snobbish elite but it is apparent that he does not become a worshiper of this part of society the way it may have seemed, for example in Swimming to Catalina. Stone certainly finds wealthy clients but that's attributable to his connection to a prestigious NY law firm and his unusual background and role.

I think it is an excellent "beach-type" read. I look forward to the next book!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An adventure...
Review: I have to say that I was really torn between giving this book 3 stars or 4 stars. Part of me was saying the book was a little trashy, and maybe a tad predictable, and worse yet a little unbelievable. Yet the other half of me (the more adventurous half) was saying give it 4 stars, the book was glamerous, sexy, and exciting! So I settled on giving 'COLD PARADISE' 4 stars all that glamour and giltz won out in the end!

Stone Barrington, the hero of this novel takes us on an adventure to the glamorous Palm Beach, Fl in search of a woman with whom one of his clients, a VERY weathly internet entrepreneur, has fallen in love after just one meeting. This assignment at first glance seems easy enough, live on a mulit-million dollar yacht with the billioaires beautiful chef and cruise around Palm Beach for a couple of days in an expensive sports car. That is until Stone realizes that the woman he is in search of is actually a woman from his past. A woman with a dangerous past of her own that Stone knows about all to well, a past that now proves to be extremely dangerous for Stone's wealthy client.

I must say if you like a little adventure as well as little bit of sex then this is a must read BEACH book. And as I said in the end I gave it 4 Stars (a guillty pleasure)!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another super-read by Stuart Woods!
Review: A writer I have had my eye on for quite sometime, Stuart Woods spins another entertaining adventure for his many loyal fans (myself included.)

Fast-pace action, interesting characters, and a wonderful page turning plot is what he is offering with his newest novel "Cold Paradise." A story I would be most proud to recommend!

John Savoy
C.E.O. & Financial Advisor
Savoy International
Motion Pictures Inc.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not exciting like Woods' other books
Review: I'm a Stuart Woods fan and have read nearly all his books, but this is the only one I have not found exciting or very interesting. It's an easy read but was somewhat predictable and I did not feel much suspense building. I hope the next book is better, and more exciting, like his earlier books.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Stone Barrington's at it again
Review: Stuart Woods is a strange author. He writes these detective novels. They have mundane plots, relatively straightforward action, and somewhat pedestrian dialogue. Yet they're very popular, and he's built up a considerable following (of which I would consider myself a member) writing them for about two decades. The strangest thing of all is his ability to hang the whole plot of a book on one or more ridiculous coincidences, and get away with it. This book has several enormous whoppers, and yet it works reasonably well.

Stone Barrington, for those who don't know him, is a former NYPD homicide detective who went to law school nights, and got himself hired by a fairly prominent law firm in the city. He does the odd legal stuff for them---getting someone's son out of jail when they get caught DUI, sorting out where all the assets went in a messy divorce, that sort of thing. In the current installment, he's hired by a dot.com billionaire entrepreneurial geek to find the woman of his dreams, who he's only met once. He only knows her name, doesn't know much of anything about her, and yet is in love with her anyway. Stone travels to Palm Beach, Florida, to find her, and winds up helping an old flame out of some legal difficulties too. There's a new romance with the geek's sexy chef, entanglements with a former lover, and an ex-wife (which could be confusing if you haven't read the previous books in the series). Much intrigue and deception follow, and there is the requisite suspense, and romance.

While this is a good book, it's not the best suspense novel ever. It is, however, a reasonable entertainment for a plane ride or an afternoon on the beach.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Enjoyable but..............................
Review: I've read each and every Stone Barrington book and though I usually enjoy them (as I did this one), I am finding Stone's relationship with Arrington getting tedious. If he is so in love with her, it certainly doesn't show when it comes to bedding others. Do what you have to do Stone, or get off the pot. Get back to your wonderful plotting Stuart


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