Dirt (Paperback, New ed)

Eased out of the NYPD, lawyer/shamus Stone Barrington (New York Dead, 1991) is free to mix with an even sleazier crowd: a vicious pair of blackmailers and their equally slimy victims. Stone's client, gossip columnist Amanda Dart, has no rivals in dishing dirt on New York celebs until the faxes headed "DIRT" start to spew from her own machine. The faxes know about her cozy liaison with an out-of-town developer; they know who she had dinner with, and who each of her dinner guests is sleeping with; they know that she's hired Stone to stop the flow of faxes; and they gleefully predict that it won't do a bit of good. Meantime, DIRT is also being dished on American Infiltrator editor Allan Peebles, a cut below Amanda in class and courage; and DIRT is warming up for the coup de grace against a third target. Stone isn't taking all this unauthorized faxing lying down, of course; he's allowing Amanda to seduce him, putting the moves on aspiring journalist Arrington Carter, and even (in Woods's most hilariously gratuitous scene) getting naked with a suspect's sister. In between bouts, he's discovering a passel of wiretaps encumbering the privacy of himself and those who sign his paychecks, and sending a retired NYPD colleague out on a surveillance detail that'll end in the morgue. The first half of the novel, highlighted by the bevy of willing, well-toned women taking their turns at Stone's shrine, is confidently, even amusingly predictable. But once Amanda's publisher Dick Hickock, presumably impressed by Stone's flurry of activity, decides to hire him on his own hook, the case begins to fall apart, as Stone's clients begin to pull in contrary directions and finally take matters into their own vigorous, aimless hands. Unmoored from their formulaic roles, Woods's tawdry avengers don't have enough substance to go it on their own. Besides, it hardly seems fair to the poor blackmailers when they're badly outnumbered by well-armed victims too despicable to root for. (Kirkus Reviews)

Coming hot on the heels of his bestsellers Choke and Imperfect Strangers, Stuart Woods brings back one of his best-loved characters, Stone Barrington, in a fast-paced roller coaster ride through the murderous world of high-profile celebrity gossip. Feared and disliked for both her poison pen and ice-queen persona, gossip columnist Amanda Dart suddenly finds the tables have turned: she is the unwitting victim of an anonymous gossipmonger who is faxing national opinion makers an outrageous scandal sheet revealing the details of her ongoing indiscretions with a well-known business tycoon. So Amanda enlists the help of New York lawyer and investigator Stone Barrington to learn the identity of the faxer. The problem is, everybody is a suspect in the world of tabloid journalism. As the faxes grow more scathing and begin to expose the peccadilloes of not only Amanda but other members of the gossip community, Barrington winds up with more leads than he can handle and an employer who is about to take matters dangerously into her own hands. The world of gossip has been turned on its head, and it becomes clear to Stone that even the most respected members of the social scene will stop at nothing - even murder - to clear their names. Irresistible as only good gossip can be, Dirt is a mesmerizing tale of betrayal and murder set against a backdrop of the rapid-fire Manhattan tabloid business and is filled with the twists and turns that have made Stuart Woods' novels international hits.

General

Imprint:	HarperCollinsPublishers
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	October 1998
Authors:	Stuart Woods
Dimensions:	178 x 111 x 18mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Mass Market
Pages:	288
Edition:	New ed
ISBN-13:	978-0-00-638725-1
Categories:	Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Crime & mystery > General
LSN:	0-00-638725-X
Barcode:	9780006387251

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