Foreign Affairs

Edgar-winner Woods’s appealing 35th Stone Barrington novel (after Naked Greed) takes the peripatetic New York lawyer, playboy, and investor to Rome, where the Arrington Group, of which he is a board member, is planning to build a palatial new hotel. On Stone’s last-minute flight from JFK, he meets Hedy Kiesler, a beautiful artist, with whom he shares an upgrade to first class—and later a bed in Rome. Meanwhile, Leonardo Casselli, a relocated New York Mafia don, makes it clear that the hotel won’t go up peacefully until he gets his share of the action. Stone calls on old friends Dino Bacchetti of the NYPD and Mike Freeman of Strategic Services for aid in his fight with Casselli, who has plenty of goons at his disposal. When Hedy becomes a pawn in the conflict, Stone devises a dangerous plan to infiltrate Casselli’s stronghold on the Amalfi coast. The finale boasts Woods’s customary combination of panache and brio. Agent: Anne Sibbald, Janklow & Nesbit. (Oct.)