“This slickly entertaining suspense displays Woods at the top of his game…. Subtly reminiscent of the waggish P. G. Wodehouse, Woods delivers a marvelously sophisticated, thoroughly modern, old-fashioned read.”

—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“There is something delightfully nasty about the way Stuart Woods settles every account in his crime capers. Even more delightful is the juggling act that lasts almost to the last page, when payoffs fall like autumn leaves.”

—New York Daily News

IMPERFECT STRANGERS

“[Woods] does show a reader a good time.”

—The Washington Post Book World

“Engage[s] the reader’s imagination in an unconventional way. Compel[s] us, in our mind’s eye, to place [the novel’s] events on the silver screen in the shadow of a latter-day Hitchcock, and somehow it works.”

—Chicago Sun Times

HEAT

“High melodrama and unexpected twists make this Teflon-coated blockbuster business as usual in Woods’s practiced hands.”

—Publishers Weekly

“A high-concept action thriller.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Keeps you reading.”

—Cosmopolitan

L.A. TIMES

“A slick, often caustically funny tale.”

—Los Angeles Times

“Stuart Woods is a wonderful storyteller who could teach Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy a thing or two.”

—The State (Columbia, S.C.)

NEW YORK DEAD

“Suspenseful and surprising.”

—Atlanta Journal & Constitution

“Hollywood slick and fast-moving.”

—Los Angeles Daily News

“Will keep you riveted.”

—USA Today

“At once chilling and pleasing. And the climax makes New York Dead as unnerving as a midnight stroll through Central Park.”

—Chicago Tribune

Books by Stuart Woods

Stone Barrington Novels

New York Dead

Dirt

Dead in the Water

Swimming to Catalina

Worst Fears Realized

L.A. Dead

Cold Paradise

The Short Forever

Dirty Work

Holly Barker

Orchid Beach

Orchid Blues

Blood Orchid

Will Lee

Run Before the Wind

Grass Roots

The Run

Standalone Titles

Chiefs

Deep Lie

Under the Lake

White Cargo

Palindrome

Santa Fe Rules

L.A. Times

Dead Eyes

Heat

Imperfect Strangers

Choke

Nonfiction

Blue Water, Green Skipper

A Romantic’s Guide to the Country Inns of Britain and England

Credits

Credits

Cover design by John Lewis

About the Publisher

About the Publisher

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)

Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia

Canada

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

55 Avenue Road, Suite 2900

Toronto, ON, M5R, 3L2, Canada

New Zealand

HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited

P.O. Box 1

Auckland, New Zealand

United Kingdom

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

77-85 Fulham Palace Road

London, W6 8JB, UK

United States

HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

10 East 53rd Street

New York, NY 10022