Product Description

Chief of Police Holly Barker-the heroine introduced in the New York Times bestselling Orchid Beach-returns with her trusty Doberman, Daisy, to track an unusual band of thieves in this second thriller in Stuart Woods's newest and most captivating series.

"Holly Barker-tough and tight-lipped-is fun to watch as she maneuvers among city politicians and wary colleagues, one of whom may be a murderer." (Entertainment Weekly review of Orchid Beach)

Holly is on her way to be married to Jackson Oxenhandler, her steady beau, when her wedding day is shattered by a serious crime that takes place very close to home. A highly disciplined team of men hit a bank in Orchid Beach, Florida, and the waves from this robbery nearly capsize Holly's life. She vows to find these men-who have been careful enough to leave nothing behind except the corpse of a bank customer-and quickly, she discovers evidence that leads her into the midst of what appears to be a politically motivated clan. Her father, Ham, a retired army chief master sergeant, is her ticket into this strange world, and what Ham inds there stuns both Holly and her FBI contact, Harry Crisp.

Holly and Ham find themselves sucked into a whirlpool of crazed criminality and, in the end, the FBI can do little to help them. This time, Holly, Ham, and Daisy are on their own, and they wouldn't have it any other way.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #679894 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-01
• Released on: 2001-11-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 350 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This second thriller in the series Woods inaugurated with Orchid Beach starts with a bang a literal one. While series heroine Holly Barker, a former military police commander turned police chief of smalltown Orchid Beach, Fla., waits at the local courthouse to marry lawyer Jackson Oxenhandler, her fianc‚ gets himself killed in a shoot-out at Orchid Beach's bank. Once past this shocker of an opening, the thrills quickly deflate. Holly stifles a few sobs, gets back into uniform and sets off to track down the gunmen, a gang of highly organized robbers who planned to heist $4 million in payroll cash. It soon becomes clear that they aren't ordinary robbers, however, appearing to have some connection to a weird little town in a neighboring county, where the average resident is white, male and a gun nut. In the course of his meandering tale, Woods deepens his portraits of Holly and her father, Ham, a retired army noncom, and dog lovers should enjoy the antics of Daisy, the Doberman diva who is Holly's constant companion. Stone Barrington, the cop-turned-lawyer from such Woods bestsellers as L.A. Dead, makes a couple of important cameo appearances. But pages of lifeless dialogue and too much dead air in an already thin narrative eventually stifle most of the book's energy. Woods knows how law enforcement agencies from local cop shops to the Secret Service work, and his action scenes are clean and sharp. But in between there are a lot of empty spaces. 16-city author tour.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
"Orchid blues," indeed: Holly's wedding day is ruined by a nearby bank robbery that leaves no clues but one unfortunate corpse, and when she investigates she finds that the robbery has political trimmings.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
[Editor's Note: The following is a combined review with the Putnam abridged version of ORCHID BLUES.]--Weddings don't always go as expected, but police chief Holly Barker's couldn't get worse. With a stunning opening chapter, author Woods sends Holly off on a chilling investigation of robbery, murder, and treason in central Florida. The abridgment is taut and intense and narrator Jan Maxwell captures Holly's moods and grit beautifully. She portrays an array of male characters--Holly's father, retired Army chief master sergeant, the gun fanatics, FBI agents--with confident style. The dual narration by Dick Hill and Susie Beck of the unabridged version lacks some of the tension of Maxwell's version. The two-voice narrative occasionally breaks the flow of the suspense although the integration of the two voices is flawless. Even Hill, a master at the thriller genre, doesn't seem fully connected with this story. The single narrator proves the better choice. R.F.W. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

ANOTHER RAPID FIRE PLOT CRAFTED BY STUART WOODS
The second adventure of Police Chief Holly Barker and her erstwhile companion, Daisy, an unbelievable Doberman, is thoroughly entertaining.

Holly isn't thinking work but wedding as she's about to tie the knot with her boyfriend, Jackson Oxenhandler. The path to the altar turns rocky when a crime occurs - a bank robbery in Orchid Beach, Florida, and a vicious one at that as the thieves take everything with them except for a dead body.

Her investigation takes Holly and her father, Ham, a retired Army sergeant to a rather strange town, Lake Winachobee. Despite its name not much is placid in this little burg as it turns out to be a hotbed of white supremacists who are planning the assassination of an important leader.

Stuart Woods has once again proffered a rapid fire plot and a stunning conclusion.

Enjoyable Read
"Orchid Blues" is not a heavy, deep, dark mystery. Now that that's out of the way, the book is a good read. If you've read "Orchid Beach" you are already familiar with the characters and the writing. The hook is Holly's fiancé being killed in cold blood at the beginning of the story. The real star in this story is Ham. He is able to infiltrate the group of underground militia that murdered Holly's fiancé. Yes there are several lucky breaks, but you know what this is a work of FICTION.

Just Okay
I picked this up because I enjoyed Woods' earlier works. This is okay light reading. The story is fast-paced, the characters likeable.

My difficulty with the book is that the reader has to suspend reality. The militia is too powerful; the "star" character's father (who really is the star character in this novel) is too good or too lucky (In one place he is able to plant a bug in a completely ridiculously lucky set circumstances.); and, the twists in the story-line are never quite believeable. The man is also immediately taken in as a blood brother by this super-careful super-paranoid group. Also, the killing of the main character's fiance at the outset is absolutely superfluous to the story - although it was a good way to hook me into the book.

If you can suspend reality it is okay beach reading. If you can't, it is a trumped up mystery where the author pulls all the strings to make the story work.

Although this novel can be read in a matter of hours, there are other better ways to spend that reading time.