President Holly Barker's inauguration may be complicated by murder, but it's all in a day's work for her lover, attorney Stone Barrington. Returning to the suite they've booked at the Hay-Adams Hotel, Stone and his friends Dino and Viv Bacchetti trip over the body of Patricia Clark. By the time the strangling hits the newspapers, Holly has already scratched the appointment of Patricia's soon-to-be ex-husband, billionaire businessman Donald Clark, as Secretary of Commerce, and D.C. police chief Deborah Myers, Clark's rumored lover, is about to reject Lt. Art Jacoby's nomination of Clark as the killer and go after Jacoby in that role instead. This plot, as so often in Stone's adventures, goes nowhere. But at least Stone's dalliance with aspiring movie actress Lara Parks leads to some satisfying sex, though Lara has to decamp to make room for Holly when she's able to sneak off to LA to resume her long-running affair with Stone. The execution of the bodyguard Dino has assigned to Jacoby--Dino's the New York City police commissioner--turns up the heat on Clark and Myers until one of them is murdered too. Eddie Craft, a fortuitous witness who saw the perpetrator of this last crime, hightails it to England, where he's immediately sucked into a scheme to steal paintings by Stone's late mother from Stone's estate in Hampshire. So everything in this daisy chain is more or less connected, though not in any way you might have expected. More bedmates for the hero, two of them new, and a higher body count than usual, but otherwise the same mixture as before. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

At the start of bestseller Woods's fun 55th novel featuring debonair New York attorney Stone Barrington (after Choppy Water), Stone returns to the Washington, D.C., hotel where he's staying for the inauguration of his longtime paramour, Holly Barker, as president--only to find the body of Patricia Clark, the incoming secretary of commerce's wife, lying on the floor of his suite. The chief suspect is the victim's husband, Dan Clark, with whom she was going through a contested divorce. Holly soon dismisses Dan from her cabinet. Stone and his New York City police commissioner pal, Dino Bachetti, help investigate the Clark case and subsequent related murders. An obvious villain doesn't lessen the tension of the cat-and-mouse game that ensues. Meanwhile, Stone and Holly contrive to meet discreetly for sex as often as possible. Fortunately for Stone, more than one attractive, willing woman is available when Holly isn't around. Better yet, nobody gets jealous. Woods's alternate universe--in which the first female U.S. president is succeeded by the second female U.S. president--provides perfect escapist fare. Agent: Anne Sibbald, Janklow & Nesbit. (Oct.)