Hot Mahogany by Stuart Woods is the 15th book in the “Stone Barrington” series. Publisher: Putnam, September 2008
One night at Elaine’s, Stone Barrington—back in Manhattan after chasing down the bad guys in the Caribbean—meets Barton Cabot, older brother of his sometime ally, CIA boss Lance Cabot. Barton’s career in army intelligence is even more top secret than his brother’s, but he’s suffering from amnesia following a random act of violence. Amnesia is a dangerous thing in a man whose memory is chockfull of state secrets, so Lance hires Stone to watch Barton’s back. As Stone discovers, Barton is a spy with a rather unusual hobby: building and restoring antique furniture. The genteel world of antiques and coin dealers at first seems a far cry from Stone’s usual underworld of mobsters, murderers, and spies. But Barton also is a man with a past, and one event in particular— in the jungles of Vietnam more than thirty years earlier— is coming back to haunt his present in ways he’d never expected. Stone soon finds out that Barton, and some shady characters of his acquaintance, may be hiding a lot more than just a few forged antiques.
Stone finds himself involved with Barton Cabot who builds and restores antiques furnitue. Barton suffers from amnesia after a vicious mugging. Stone’s been asked to look after Barton who discovers that one of his antiques was stolen and thus begins the cat and mouse game of finding the missing secretary (desk). Stone was his usual self bedding several women and getting accosted by their dejected suitors. I enjoyed it.