"Delightful Barrington tale"

At Elaine's nightclub in Manhattan, lawyer Stone Barrington meets his new client Billy Bob Barnstormer. Stone doesn't understand why Billy Bob needs an attorney, but he gets his first inkling that this is the client from the nether regions when someone shoots at them while in a moving vehicle. Billy Bob stays at Stone's house for awhile floating a wad of cash including two dollar bills. When his latest client and houseguest vanish, Stone and his girlfriend District Attorney Tiffany Baldwin share some recreational sex.

The next day on the Justice website, is a video of the DA and Stone having sex; another relationship of Stone's is also trashed. Besides the video, Billy Bob left behind a present for his host, the strangled body of a call girl. Stone does an internet search on his former guest only to find that Billy Bob has many aliases in varying corporations. The CIA want Stone to help them find Billy Bob who has stolen weapons that terrorists will pay a great deal of money to get their hands on. The FBI wants Stone to help them find Billy Bob who has stolen money in his possession. The DA wants Stone to find Billy Bob not just because of the embarrassing video, but because he stiffed many people with his con games. Stone wants Billy Bob for personal reasons.

Stuart Woods has created a fabulous hero who can turn from nebbish to dynamo when he feels someone threatens people he cares about. Stone does not know why Billy Bob targeted him, but he knows he must take precautions to stop this psychopath; alas his efforts fail and he becomes a hunter tracking his prey. Mr. Woods provides a delightful Barrington tale in which the enemy will fascinate readers with his outrageous behavior.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 2, 2005

Summary

Stone Barrington is caught between a clever con man-who's just become his client-and a beautiful prosecutor in this stylish thriller in the bestselling series. Two-Dollar Bill delivers all the storytelling twists and whip-smart banter readers have come to love in Stuart Woods's thrillers. In this latest, Stone Barrington, the suave Manhattan cop-turned-lawyer, is back on his home turf facing down a brilliant Southern flimflam man. The fun-and action-begins with what Stone believes will be a quiet dinner with his ex-partner, Dino, but they are interrupted by Billy Bob, a filthy rich, smooth-talkin' Texan, who strolls in and parks himself at their table. He's in town "to make money," he says, unwrapping his wad of rare two-dollar bills, and in need of an attorney- namely, Stone-though he won't say why or when such representation will be necessary. As they leave the restaurant, however, an unknown assailant shoots at Stone and his cohorts-and the wily Southerner has spread his two- dollar bills around to everyone like confetti. Against his better judgment, Stone offers Billy Bob a safe haven for the night but almost immediately begins to suspect that he's made several precipitous misjudgments- for the slippery out-of-towner has gone missing and someone has been found dead-in Stone's town house no less. Stone is now caught between a beautiful federal prosecutor and a love from his past, a con man with more aliases than hairs on his head, and a murder investigation that could ruin them all.