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| Plot Summary of Dirty Work |
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Putnam, April 2003, 25.95, 336 pp.
ISBN 0399149821
Stone Barrington serves of counsel to the New York law firm of Woodman & Weld, which means they are one step removed from any dirty work that has to be done for their high paying clients. Stone is asked to find someone to take pictures of Lawrence Fortescue cheating on his heiress wife so that, according to the terms of the prenuptial agreement, she can get a divorce and not pay him a cent in alimony. While the man Stone hires takes pictures, he has dinner with Carpenter, a beautiful espionage agent he met in England last year.
When Stone retrieves the pictures, Carpenter recognizes Lawrence as one of the agents in her unit who quit the service. The woman in the picture Marie-Therese, a deadly assassin who blends as well as a chameleon into her surroundings killed him. She has a vendetta against those people in Carpenter's unit and has killed most of them with the exception of three people. Carpenter intends to get her before Marie-These kills her but Stone is the wild card in this spy game with no rules.
The protagonist of this novel stays true to his own moral code even if it means working against his current lover. Stone brings a touch of class to the spy game, not waiting for foreign nationals who are supposedly the good guys, to make a hit on American soil. The antagonist of this thriller is easy to understand and even sympathetic when she agrees to a truce that Stone arranges. Stuart Woods knows how to tell a good story while showing his audience just how ugly the spy game can get.
Harriet Klausner
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Harriet Klausner, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Dirty Work |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 50%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%
Tone of story
- suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
Time/era of story:
- present (2000-2010)
Spying/Terrorism Thriller
Yes
Cloak & Dagger Plotlets:
- preventing/finding assassin
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- a lawyer creature
Age:
- 40's-50's
How much violence does he/she use?
- just the right amount
Ethnicity/Race
- Russian
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Female
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- killer
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
Motive of antagonist
- revenge
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
How many deaths?
- 8 or more
Amount of dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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