Dirt (Stone Barrington)

Coming on the heels of his bestselling "Choke" and "Imperfect Strangers," Stuart Woods brings back one of his best-loved characters, Stone Barrington, in a fast-paced roller-coaster ride through the murderous world of high-profile celebrity gossip.

Feared and disliked for both her poison pen and ice-queen persona, gossip columnist Amanda Dart finds the tables have turned. Someone is faxing an outrageous scandal sheet revealing the details of Amanda's ongoing indiscretions with a famous takeover artist to national opinion makers. Amanda enlists the help of New York lawyer-investigator Stone Barrington to learn the identity of the faxer. "Everybody" is a suspect in the world of tabloid journalism. As the faxes grow more scathing and begin to expose the peccadilloes of not only Amanda but other members of the gossip community, Barrington winds up with more leads than he can handle and an employer who is about to take matters dangerously into her own hands. The world of gossip is turned on its head. It becomes clear to Stone that even the most respected members of the social scene will stop at nothing -- even "murder" -- to clear their names.

Irresistible as only good gossip can be, "Dirt" is a mesmerizing tale of betrayal and murder set against a backdrop of the rapid-fire Manhattan tabloid business; it is filled with the twists and turns that have made Stuart Woods' novels international hits.