Stone Barrington (abridged)

Coming on the heels of his bestselling Choke and Imperfect Strangers, Stuart Woods brings back one of his best loved characters, Stone Barrington, who most recently appears in New York Dead, in a fast paced, rollercoaster ride through the high-profile world of celebrity gossip.

Stone Barrington, an ex-cop turned Manhattan attorney and private eye, treads the thin line between the respectable practice of law and the dark side of humanity. The roller-coaster ride begins during a vacation on the Caribbean island of St. Marks, when a beautiful young woman named Allison Manning sails into the harbor on a large yacht. Allison immediately draws the attention of Minister of Justice Sir Winston Sutherland, who demands to know why her husband, a famous writer, has vanished.

In Swimming to Catalina, ex-cop-turned Manhattan attorney and investigator Stone Barrington is back, still smarting from his sudden breakup with brilliant, beautiful magazine writer Arrington Carrington, who has left him to marry Hollywood's hottest male star, Vance Calder. Then Calder calls Stone for help: Arrington has vanished without a trace, and Calder, refusing to call the police, wants Stone to find her.

Former cop turned lawyer turned investigator, Stone Barrington is in a position that every ex-policeman dreads; all around him people are dying, and he suspects the killer may be someone he put in prison years before.