I'm going to be honest with you. I started this one expecting literary popcorn - the kind of book you throw on while grinding through procedural generation code at 2 AM because your thesis isn't going to procrastinate on itself. And that's exactly what I got. No more, no less.
Stuart Woods wrote Stone Barrington novels the way some people breathe - automatically, consistently, and without much conscious thought. Sex, Lies & Serious Money is book forty-something in the series (I lost count around the time I lost track of my thesis timeline), and it reads like it. A mysterious client shows up on Stone's doorstep fresh off a private jet at Teterboro, there's money involved, beautiful women appear, expensive dinners happen, and Stone solves problems while being impossibly wealthy and connected.
The Literary Equivalent of a Cheeseburger
Here's the thing about Stone Barrington books - they're not trying to be Sanderson-level world-building. There's no magic system to diagram. No Cosmere-spanning implications to track. This is pure comfort food fiction, and expecting anything else is like getting mad at a D&D one-shot for not having the narrative depth of a three-year campaign.
The plot bounces from New York luxury high-rises to New Mexico desert with the kind of breezy pacing that makes eight hours feel like four. Stone's client has come into money through means that aren't quite what they seem (shocker), and various unsavory types want a piece of it. There's romance. There's danger. There's probably a scene at Elaine's or whatever fancy restaurant Woods was into at the time.
Is it predictable? Absolutely. Did I care? Not really. Sometimes you need something that doesn't require a wiki to follow.
Tony Roberts: The Comfortable Old Sweater of Narrators
Opinions get spicy here. Some listeners swear Tony Roberts is the only voice for Stone Barrington - one reviewer literally said they refuse to listen to Woods books unless Roberts narrates. Others found his delivery "stodgy."
I'm somewhere in the middle. Roberts has this easy, breezy charm that matches the material perfectly. His comedic timing lands when Woods drops his occasional dry observations, and he shifts into dramatic mode without making it feel jarring. The criminals and cops get these slightly raspy voices that telegraph "I am a tough guy" without being cartoonish about it.
But - and this is important - he's not doing heavy character differentiation. This isn't a performance where you forget there's a narrator. It's more like having a competent friend read you a story. For actual transcendent narration that makes you forget you're listening to an audiobook, It with Steven Weber is the gold standard. Roberts? Pleasant, professional, occasionally charming. Not transcendent.
If you're coming from audiobooks where the narrator transforms into each character (Steven Pacey, I'm looking at you, you magnificent bastard), Roberts might feel a bit vanilla. If you want someone who gets out of the way and lets the story flow, he's your guy.
Roll for Initiative (Or Don't)
This is for the commute. The long drive. The mindless task that needs background entertainment. It's not for your dedicated listening session where you're trying to absorb something meaningful.
Listen if: You're already a Stone Barrington fan (you know exactly what you're getting), you need low-stakes background audio, or you want fiction that won't punish you for zoning out during a boring meeting.
Skip if: You've never tried Woods before (multiple first-time readers called it terrible while series veterans shrugged and said "yep, that's Stone"), you want character depth, or you need something that'll stick with you past the final chapter.
Content-wise: there's sex (it's in the title, come on), violence, and language. Nothing that'll shock anyone who's consumed adult fiction before, but maybe don't blast this at the family barbecue.
Session Complete, No XP Gained
And that's fine! Not everything needs to be a forty-hour epic with appendices. Sometimes you want the literary equivalent of a session where the party just does a simple dungeon crawl without any dramatic character revelations.
I finished it. I was entertained enough. I immediately forgot most of the plot details, which is probably intentional - these books are designed to be consumed and discarded, not savored and re-read.
Worth a credit? Eh. If you're already in the Stone Barrington ecosystem, sure. If you're new, maybe grab it from the library first or wait for a sale. It's competent, comfortable, and completely forgettable in the best possible way.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a thesis to not write and a Sanderson reread to start.
