April 16th, 2010 Orchid Beach
- ISBN13: 9780061355264
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Product Description
New York Times bestselling author Stuart Woods has entertained and engrossed readers with hisfast-paced, suspenseful novels including Swimming to Catalina, Dead in the Water, Dirt, andChiefs. Now from this master storyteller comes a riveting thriller introducing an exciting addition tothe pantheon of fictional sleuths.
Smart, attractive, and fiercely independent, Major Holly Barker, thearmy-brat daughter of a master sergeant, has been forced into early retirement at the age of thirty-sevenas the result of a scandalous sexual harassment case. With the help of her dad she makes the move tocivilian life, becoming deputy chief of police in Orchid Beach, Florida.
But below the calm, sunnysurface of this sleepy, well-to-do coastal island town lies a web of evil and deceit that escalates when acolleague and another associate are brutally gunned down. Alone, an outsider with no clues to go on, findingthe killers won’t be easy for Holly, and her seemingly low-key new career soon thrusts her into adangerous game of cat and mouse. Surrounded by a staff of officers she neither knows nor trusts, Hollyfinds help in a most unexpected source–Daisy, a Doberman of exceptional intelligence and loyalty whoquickly becomes her inseparable companion and protector. The closer she gets to unraveling the mystery ofOrchid Beach, however, the nearer Holly comes to danger darker and more deadly than any she could everhave anticipated.
Filled with the dazzling twists and sizzling turns that have made his novels nationalbestsellers and international hits, Orchid Beach ranks as one of Stuart Woods’s most inventive andbrilliantly drawn works–an entertaining, nonstop tale that will keep readers on the edge of their seats asis races from the first page to its exhilarating conclusion.Amazon.com Review
Talk about a bad first day. Major Holly Barker thought she was getting out of a mess when she left the army. She’d been sexually harassed by her superior, but the exigencies of the military legal system wound up wrecking her career. Orchid Beach seemed like the perfect place to start over. Though Chief Marley, an old family friend, was worried about some local increases in the drug trade, the Florida barrier island was not a crime mecca. As the new deputy police chief, Holly would be stepping on the toes of a few Orchid Beach P.D. regulars who were being overlooked for the job, but she would prove her worth in short order. After installing her trailer in Riverview, though, the bad news started to flood the Beach. The chief was found along the side of highway A1A with a bullet through the head, and his closest friend just had his skull blown apart with the chief’s shotgun. Now, Holly is the acting chief in a town she hardly knows and with a police force that’s full of animosity towards its newly minted leader. Just about the only consolation is that Holly has inherited Daisy, a Doberman who’s about the best and most faithful friend a troubled gal could ask for; Daisy’s a fierce defender of her master and she knows how to retrieve a beer on command.
Holly is a new character for Stuart Woods, and the author wastes no time getting readers into the thick of the mystery. This means that character takes a bit of a back seat to plotting in Orchid Beach, but with a mystery this fast-paced, the tradeoff is worthwhile. –Patrick O’Kelley
Tags: Beach, orchid
April 16th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
HOLLY BARKER NOVELS ARE QUICK AND EASY TO READ. HAVE ALWAYS LOVED STUART WOODS BOOKS AND AM NOW READING SOME FOR THE SECOND TIME.
Rating: 5 / 5
April 16th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
I came here to see if maybe this book is going to get any better toward the middle. In order to stay awake, I had to lay it down about the time Holly encounters the dog. ORCHID BEACH is flat, even the sentence structure is monotonous, the female protagonist worse than wooden, the dialogue grade-school level, the facts dealt out like driving directions from a kind, courteous, accurate 7-11 clerk. So I asks myself, is it me? Am I jaded at my age? And I comes here to see what others think, and to find out how this author even got published once, let alone how he got famous and successful and stuff. You figure that if a novel is published, has a price on it and everything, it meets some standard of readability. But it doesn’t. So I’ll pitch in by tapping out this unkind one-star review, which might affect its overall rating and thereby spare a few others. *YAWN*
A few years ago, I read a suspense mystery by Stuart Woods about a town submerged in a lake. It was great! I recommend readers “new to Stuart Woods” go find that one, and skip ORCHID BEACH.
Rating: 1 / 5
April 16th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
This was the best book I have read by Stuart Woods. I really enjoyed Holly and Daisy and I’m looking forward to reading Orchid Blues and I hope it is as good as Orchid Beach.
Rating: 5 / 5
April 16th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
I’VE NEVER BEEN INTERESTED IN READING MYSTERY BOOKS. STUART WOODS HAS DEFINITELY CHANGED MY MIND. ORCHID BEACH WAS THRILLING AND VERY DETAILED. I FELT AS IF I WAS ON THE ORCHID POLICE FORCE HELPING HOLLY SOLVE THE UNEXPECTED MURDERS. I WILL CONTINUE TO READ OTHER BOOKS BY STUART. HE IS A NEW AUTHOR ON MY BOOK LIST.
Rating: 5 / 5
April 16th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
I WONDERED IF THIS BOOK COULD BE AS GOOD AS THOSE FEATURING STONE BARRINGTON. I WASN’T DISAPPOINTED. I LOVED HOLLY AND DAISY AND ALL THE SUPPORTING CAST. I HOPE STUART FEATURES THESE CHARACTERS IN ANOTHER BOOK. ALTHOUGH STONE WILL ALWAYS BE MY FAVORITE, HOLLY AND DAISY ARE RUNNING A CLOSE SECOND. I RECCOMEND THIS BOOK TO ALL CUSTOMERS THAT COME INTO MY BOOK STORE.
Rating: 5 / 5