Skip to main content

Indecent Exposure: A Stone Barrington Novel

Review

Indecent Exposure: A Stone Barrington Novel

As usual, Stone Barrington is a larger-than-life character. He is still a lawyer with his New York law firm, but now he has been appointed attorney to the President of the United States, Kate Rule, and her husband, former President Will Rule. Stone is always in the spotlight of some kind of caper, and in INDECENT EXPOSURE he learns that all of his bustling around can lead him to fear for his life.

His girlfriend, Holly Barker, is now Secretary of State, which means she is chained to her job in Washington, D.C. Therefore, Stone is ready to date the most beautiful and available women. He hooks up with Gloria Parsons, a reporter for a trashy tabloid magazine, Just Folks, until she writes a story about him and Holly that is quite unflattering. He gets her thrown out of several places, and soon she is fired.

"The tension between the families takes many twists and turns and gives readers a run for their money. In perfect Stuart Woods style, his characters are perfectly limned and their personalities totally believable."

The book starts with a conversation between Stone and Dino Bacchetti, his old partner who is now police commissioner. Dino asks about Peter Rule, the President's son from her first marriage. Peter is newly engaged to Celeste Saltonstall, Senator Saltonstall’s daughter: "Stone knew from his mother that Peter was planning a run for New York's other senatorial seat at the midterm." Stone makes a million-dollar donation to Peter's fledgling campaign.

While out to dinner with Dino and Gloria (before the article), she brings up the fact that a friend of hers is doing time at Fishkill. She hopes to wriggle some kind of pardon for this man and gets herself into trouble as time goes on, but she does get him released early. Together they come up with schemes to help her career get back on track.

Gloria becomes involved with Benton Blake, a man who knows Celeste intimately. One summer when she was a teenager, they had an affair and Celeste became pregnant. She had an abortion, and neither ever told anyone of this event. But now that she is engaged to Peter and Blake is a blackguard, she is worried that the story will come out and ruin her marriage and Peter's political career before it even gets off the ground.

The tension between the families takes many twists and turns and gives readers a run for their money. In perfect Stuart Woods style, his characters are perfectly limned and their personalities totally believable. And, of course, the political theme is very timely and deep. 

Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum on June 30, 2017

Indecent Exposure: A Stone Barrington Novel
by Stuart Woods

  • Publication Date: February 27, 2018
  • Genres: Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller
  • Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
  • ISBN-10: 0735217122
  • ISBN-13: 9780735217126