Cold Paradise (Stone Barrington)
by Stuart Woods

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Book Reviews of Cold Paradise (Stone Barrington)

Book Review: Cold Decadence
Summary: 2 Stars

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.

Summary of Cold Paradise (Stone Barrington)

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

Literature & Fiction Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction
• Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery
• Police Procedurals