Orchid Beach (Holly Barker)

Title: Orchid Beach
Author: Stuart Woods
Narrator: Debra Monk
Length: Unabridged; 6 hours
Publisher: Harper Audio
Published: August 1998
Genres: Fiction; Mystery

Visit my review/blog HERE!

My Rating: ✮✮✮✮

Synopsis:
New York Times bestselling author Stuart Woods delivers a riveting thriller that introduces an exciting addition to the pantheon of fictional sleuths.
Forced into early retirement at thirty-seven, smart, attractive, and fiercely independent Major Holly Barker trades in her bars as a military cop for the badge of deputy chief of police in Orchid Beach, Florida. But below the sunny surface of this sleepy, well-to-do island town lies an evil that escalates into the cold-blooded murder of one of Holly's new colleagues.
An outsider, Holly has little to go on for answers and no one to help her—except Daisy, a Doberman of exceptional intelligence and loyalty that becomes her companion and protector. The closer Holly gets to the truth, the more she knows that it'll take one smart dog with guts to sniff out this killer—before he can catch her first.

My Review:
I typically don't pick up older books to read, but it just happen to be that the end of the year was nearing and I needed to complete a challenge with a flower/plant in the title, and I came across Orchid Beach. I had never read anything by Stuart Woods before, but I must say that this was a gem of a find! Once I finished, I was already trying to figure out how to get my hands on Orchid Blues, book 2!

The narrator was a wonderful fit for Major Holly Barker, whose character I absolutely adored! I loved her carefree don't give a crap what anybody thinks attitude and her drive to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible! The narrator kept me entertained throughout the entire book and made it seem like the story was over in no time! She also did a great job distinguishing herself between the different characters, so as not to confuse the reader as to who was actually talking! Her reading was smooth and animated in all the right spots! I hope to hear her on the next book!

Back to the characters...there was an interesting cast of characters in this book! All of their personalities were so unique of that from anything that I've read before, and I think I enjoyed that the most! Of course, Daisy the Dog is my favorite, but Holly is a close second!

I enjoyed the writing of Woods and his style. I felt that it flowed smoothly and concisely. He is really in tune with creative writing at its best and provides the perfect amount of romance and suspense, without the romance overpowering the suspense. He has a great since of climax and did a wonderful job of keeping the reader going until the very end.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and have just found myself a new author and series to follow! I've already got Orchid Blues and will be starting it soon, on audio as well! Thanks for a great book/series, Mr. Woods!

Stuart Woods' Orchid Beach is the first novel in the popular Holly Barker series. Holly was an officer in the military police, filed a sexual harassment complaint against a high-ranking officer who was unfairly found not guilty, and retired to take a job as deputy chief of police for a small Florida town called Orchid Beach because she felt that her military career was over due to the complaint. On Holly's first day on the job, Chief of Police Chet Marley, a friend of her father who served with him in Vietnam, is shot. During Holly's investigation of the shooting, she visits Chet's best friend, Hank Doherty, and finds that he has been murdered. Hank's dog, a well-trained Doberman pinscher named Daisy, is sent home with Holly, and she ends up keeping her. Chet previously told Holly that he was uncovering evidence that someone in his police department was a traitor, but did not specify who or what the issues were; he told her that he would discuss it with her when she came on the job. He is in a coma and cannot give her any information.

While Holly is getting to know the town and is driving through the neighborhoods, she discovers Palmetto Gardens, an extremely affluent neighborhood; the security guards won't let her in, even though it is in her jurisdiction. They call the head of security, who, coincidentally, also served in Vietnam with Holly's dad, and he takes her on a tour. Later, he invites Holly and her dad to play golf. Holly is very suspicious of this development, not only because of the high security, but also because of the secrecy. When Holly meets Jackson Oxenhandler, a defense attorney who ends up being her love interest, she learns that some of the security guards were previously policemen in Miami and were fired for committing major violent felonies.

As the story unfolds, Holly puts herself in danger while trying to solve the shootings, as well as investigating Palmetto Gardens. Daisy saves her from a terrible rape and murder, and she shoots a vicious killer. Some of the bad guys are quite predictable, but there are also surprises in the end.

One of the members of the city counsel is a car dealer who does the maintenance on the Palmetto Gardens vehicles. He tries to get Holly fired and votes against her when she is up for the chief position. Woods does not address what happens to this man, or whether he is a good or bad guy, so the reader is left hanging. Hopefully it will be addressed in the next novel of the series.

Woods has a very straightforward style of writing, and tells the story simply. Unlike some other popular mainline suspense/thrillers, this novel has no overt sex or violence, and could almost be considered a "cozy" since it is quite tame. It does however, keep the reader's interest, and is a fun, quick read that doesn't require any serious thinking. For those suspense/thriller fans who want to start a new easy-to read series, Orchid Beach is a good one to start with. Holly Barker is tough, likeable, and even makes mistakes.

This book was purchased with personal funds and no promotion of the book was solicited by the author or publisher.

Ever since Chiefs, Stuart Woods has had a loyal following. I'm one of the followers, after a fashion. There's no question he's not the second coming of Chandler, or something, or that his characters are very memorable, or anything. He does, however, create relatively interesting plots, and the characters are interesting also, though everything can be a bit predictable. If you've ever read Nelson DeMille, and not read Woods, I consider the two to be virtually interchangeable, except that Woods' books tend to be shorter, and DeMille's tend to be more international and espionage/military oriented.
In this book Woods introduces a new character. She's Holly Barker, a just-retired Army MP officer who becomes Assistant Chief of a small-town police department, only to have the chief get shot just as she gets into town, and then to have various odd things begin to happen. There's a mysterious Lieutenant who wants her job, small town politics, a dog who gets beer from the refrigerator, a drifter who is a good suspect for the chief's shooting except for he doesn't act like it, and another murder to solve. Barker has to deal with all of this, an adventurous father, his old army buddies, an amorous defense attorney, a bad cop who's been in jail, and a raft of FBI agents. All very fun, and all told in standard Woods style, which means it reads fast. If you're going to Chicago or NYC or LA on the plane tomorrow, this is probably a good bet.

The Margin
Close your eyes for just a moment and imagine Holly Barker's life and career: Holly a retired U.S. Army MSgt, an uncommon feat in and of itself, returns home where her father lives. Dad's best friend is the local police chief of this small, affluent community, and the chief believes Holly would make a good assistant chief. The announcement did not sit well with others that believed the position should have been filled from within the present force. Little did they know Holly was hired to look into corruption within city government, including the police force. Holly pins her badge on as assistant and the next thing she knew she was neck deep in a double murder investigation, one of the victims, her boss the police chief who had just hired her. Who's trustworthy, who's got her back, who's the culprit(s)?? Now, open your eyes and think about her dilemma, it isn't a pretty sight.
You'll be drawn into this mystery as Holly Barker, and her father, work together to solve this crime. An excellent read.
Marvin Wiebener, author of The Margin

Having recently read and enjoyed Stuart Woods's four Stone Barrington novels, I bought a discount copy of "Orchid Beach"... and let me first say how happy I am that I didn't pay full price. The book starts fairly well, with an intriguing enough premise, but Woods takes it nowhere. Holly Barker could have been an interesting character, but she's really no character at all. The book would have been far more compelling had Woods chosen to focus on her adjustment to Orchid Beach and her investigation into the shootings of Marley and Doherty, instead of the predictable nonsense about Palmetto Gardens. Somewhere along the way, Holly stopped being the focus of the book, cast aside in favor of Harry Crisp, the literary equivalent of a traffic cop. The book is very badly written; Woods's prose is both tired and repetitious. It's as if he dictated a first draft, and then rewrote only the first third. And the editing is almost profoundly sloppy: does Holly live at Riverside or Riverview Park? Is Goldman's name Howard or Frank? Woods doesn't seem to know, or--tellingly--to care. He's certainly capable of writing well. Why, then, isn't he?

When I learned that the new Stone Barrington novel was to feature Holly Barker, chief of police in Orchid Beach, Florida, I thought I'd get to know her by reading the first book in her series by Stuart Woods. Holly Barker is forced into early retirement from the Army after a nasty sexual harassment case. Chet Marley, chief of police in Orchid Beach, offers Holly a job as his deputy chief of police. On her first day on the job, Holly learns that Marley had been shot the night before and was in a coma. She also finds out that Marley's best friend, Hank Doherty, had been killed the same night. Holly adopts Doherty's Doberman, Daisy. She suspects that someone on the force knows about the shootings, but she isn't sure who knows. As she investigates, she is led to Palmetto Gardens, a very exclusive and rich piece of property in Orchid Beach. It is gated with extremely tight security. With the help of the FBI, her father Hamilton, and her lover Jackson Oxenhandler, Holly gets the answers to her questions. I enjoyed this book. Stuart Woods writes page turners, and "Orchid Beach" will keep the reader turning pages.

Gal gets offered job as deputy chief of small Florida town, goes down there, only to find that the chief had been shot in the head the night before she got to town, and is now in hospital in coma. Within 48 hours, has a public defendant asking her out, within two weeks they are talking about her tits. Yeah, a guy definitely wrote this book. I am interested in murder mysteries, NOT sex stories with a bit of murder thrown in, so I won't be continuing with either this book or the others in the series.

Mr. Woods introduces Major Holly Barker, on the losing side of a sex harassment suit (she was the complainant; the Defendant was a good old boy General Grade) who chucks it all for civilian life in the quiet wealthy Florida town of Orchid Beach. The first few pages is the last time you'll see Holly on the ropes, and she kicks you know what and takes names from that point on.

She is a very interesting character and she brings with her Ham, her Dad, who's a trip and the dog, Daisy who's a real DOG. (I'm so tired of that pretend dog Spenser puts up with it's nice to see a dog who will shred the flesh off of the bad guys' bones if asked to.)

Holly was hired to be the Deputy Chief but never has the chance as the Chief, her Dad's friend Chet, is gunned down at an apparent traffic stop and ends up in a coma, thought to be terminal.

The action is taut and the secondary characters believable and quite interesting. I've never been a fan of Mr. Woods' dialogue but it seems to work over and over so it must be me. The sex is present and unlike her counterpart, Stone Barrington, Holly seems satisfied to have great sex with one man, her boyfriend. Shades of monogamy!

Recommended. Good novel. 4 stars. Larry Scantlebury

Holly Barker becomes disillusioned with her military career after she sues a colonel for sexual harrassment and he is found not guilty. Very conveniently, her father's friend, Chief Chet Marley offers her a job as his Deputy in the Orchid Beach Police Department. Holly accepts, and the day she reports, the chief and his best friend are both shot. She takes over as Deputy Chief and heads the investigation into the shootings. Eventually the trail leads to Palmetto Gardens, a walled compound for wealthy homeowners, which seems to have way too many security people and too many rough tactics for keeping people out of the compound. There is also the problem of an informant within the Orchid Beach Police Department, which means that Holly never knows who she can trust. She does ally with a local lawyer and a Doberman Pinscher named Daisy, who is instrumental in apprehending the bad guys. This is light reading which has an occasional lapse in credibility, but it's fun and entertaining.

Very much an old fashioned, though solid mystery that would like to be a top knotch police procedural. It would need to have a lot more invested in every area of the book for that to be true. The setting is a beautiful section of Florida that makes one wishful to be there. The characters are so picture perfect that I was afraid one of them was going to turn out to be the bad guy. It certainly would have really wrecked the leading characters holiday family photo, had it turned out that way. I guess what makes me sad is that the leading female character could have easily have been male. In fact, turn the boyfriend into a girlfriend--in other words--just reverse the lead characters gender and the story would have worked out fine. Vanilla characters and storytelling, but a quality vanilla.

I am typically a reader of Woods' Stone Barrington series, but since he cannot write them fast enough, I sought out his other series, in which this is the first book.
The Orchid series follow a character named Holly Barker, who is retired from the U.S. military. She takes a position with the Orchid Beach police, and upon arriving the chief is murdered. While getting accustomed to her co-employees, the Orchid Beach community, and her new friend Daisy, Holly must try to solve the case, while also investigating a mysterious 'members only' development called Palmetto Gardens. And to top things off, the ex-chief hinted to Holly before his murder that he thought something 'suspicious' was going on in the department. Holly must decide whom she can and cannot trust.
The book did tend to be a little unrealistic with the qualities of Palmetto Gardens, but overall if was still a great read. A keeper for any Woods fan!

Orchid Beach is billed as a thriller, but there's not much suspense to be found within these pages. Holly Barker, her military career dead-ended by her allegations of sexual assault, takes a job as assistant chief in the Orchid Beach PD. No sooner does she report for duty than her boss, and his best friend, are gunned down. Holly's first priority is to find his murderer(s). Her second is to track down the inside snitch the chief suspected was skulking in the ranks. She also falls immediately in love with the implausibly named Jackson Oxenhandler (?). And soon Holly's father, a high ranking army officer whom she calls "Ham", resigns his commission and shows up at her home. Luckily, the chief's best friend was also her father's, and left a lovely home for him to move into along with a sizable monetary inheritance. Coincidentally, Ham is also friendly with the book's perp.

It's lucky that Holly adopted the best friend's dog, because Daisy is the real heroine of the story. Orchid Beach is a predictable, run of the mill sort of crime novel filled with stock, rather flat characters. Good for a beach read, but don't expect anything great.

ORCHID BEACH, the first in the series of Holly Barker novels, sets off with a bang and despite several expected cliches and a rather over the top climax, it's riveting read and prompted me to seek out the remaining novels in this series.

What makes this book work for me is Holly herself: she's brave, straightforward, intelligent and doesn't take poop from anyone. The supporting characters, both heroes and villains, are well fleshed out and the pacing of the novel kept me interested. The inclusion of Daisy, the rather psychic Doberman, also adds some needed color and humor. The Florida setting is appealing and the villains appropriately nasty. A fine read, for both Woods afficionados and mystery readers.

Major Holly Barker, a victim of sexual harassment, resigns from the Army to become deputy chief of police of Orchid Beach, a tiny, beachfront town seemingly set a few miles south of where I live. Before she can get settled, someone murders the police chief and his best friend. Holly's investigation leads to a gated community outside of town that has massive security forces and devices. She also finds that an unknown person is acting as a mole in her department. Naturally, she becomes a target and must watch her back while she moves doggedly ahead with the investigation. The further she progresses, the more dangerous it becomes, leading to a slam-bang climax that finishes the story nicely.

Not the greatest book I have ever read. Both the characters and the environment are only two dimensional. Mr. Woods spends neither time nor imagination "fleshing out" the characters, the mood, or the environment. Reads more like a report than a "thriller". I still can't believe this chick jumped into bed with a guy she had only met a few times after suffering through a trial for sexual misconduct and near rape. Stupid. I picked it up at the library only because I couldn't find anything more in the library written by Steve Berry or Stephen White. After reading well thought out books like theirs, this was a major disappointment. "Twilight" was better written. Thank God I didn't have to pay for it. I will not be reading another one.

I have read all the novels by Stuart Woods since 'Chiefs' 1981 (which I consider as his best novel) and enjoyed them all more or less. This last book 'Orchid beach' is not even close regarding plot and characters descriptions. The plot is less than thin. The characters are simply not interesting. The style reminds me of some mystery books like 'The Hardy brothers solves a case' that I read as a kid. Though-out the book I repeatedly asked myself when the heroine was going to think or do the most obvious things and check-up, that every normal person would do in her situation... I don't expect Holly Barker to show up again in another novel after this fiasco.

I bought this book second hand, for not much money, thank goodness. I would hate to pay full price for this wretched book. I loved Wood's book, "Chiefs" but this one falls off a cliff it sinks so low. The plot strains credulity and all the other "one star" people have expressed my sentiments.

This was the first Stuard Woods' book I've read. I was excited to discover a new author from the suspence genre. I listen to a lot of audio books, especially mysteries, when I travel and heard "Orchid Blues" while on the road. I found the story line a bit tedious but I liked the characters so I picked this book up at a used book store and found I couldn't put it down. The story is strong, fast paced, and the characters are interesting. Holly Barker is a gutsy, commanding female figure, and the supporting characters are colorful. It is a great way to escape from the ho hum. I recommend it.

I have listened to all the Orchid Beach books and found the first to be the most intense. They are all good though and I encourage everyone to try the series. Woods does a decent job with a female as the main character, though many of her characteristics are clearly male influenced. I don't know many women who go home after a hard day's work and grill a burger while drinking beer or a scotch, but Holly Barker does. It is always fun to see how Woods has her get involved in the latest mystery. Solid read and worth the effort.

Book #1 is an excellent beginning too the Holly Baker series. It is will written with well developed interesting characters, lots of twist and turns as the story line progresses, and a great conclusion. I would recommend this series too anyone who enjoys a good mystery. Enjoy reading

My second Stuart Woods novel, and I enjoyed it. A great beach read. Not as good a Stone Barrington so far but Holly Barker, new chief of police in Orchid Beach is ok. I live close to "Orchid Beach" in real life so it's an extra fun read for me. Barker is thrust into murder and high intrigue in this little community. It was nice to see her cooperate with the Feds also. Good support characters too, including Daisy. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

After reading some of the lousy reviews for this book, my enthusiasm was somewhat diminished. However, after reading the book I was pleasantly suprised. No, the characters aren't particularly well-developed, and perhaps some of their actions and decisions may not necessarily be completely believeable, but the bottom line is that the book is interesting, and a fun, easy read. I have read almost all of Woods' books, and I would say that this one is among his better efforts. If you enjoy his books, this one shouldn't dissapoint you.

I enjoyed this book and the murder mystery that unfolds. I enjoyed the location since I am familiar with the real area the factious town is located in. The characters are well developed as well as the way in which the story unfolds.
I loved the way the dog plays into the action. A great dog!

There is a light sex scene as well as a detailed rape attempt.

Stuart Woods' Orchid Beach is another consistent work by this author. While not his best, Woods once again writes a compelling and believable story, with deep and interesting characters, and evocative descriptions of place, as well as his usual indulgence in describing the finer things in life, all the while keeping the reader hooked to a fast-paced tale. For fans of Woods, another winner; for others, a pretty good introduction to this author.

I've read better by Stuart Woods, but Orchid Beach was enjoyable. He usually gives more depth to his plots, and this book was written as if it was an "afterthought". I did enjoy the character of Holly, and I'm guessing she will appear in future novels. Too bad he didn't focus on Daisy, the Doberman, more. There was plenty of plot to do so, but....

Ok! She's no Stone Barrington, but Holly Barker and Daisy arrived just in the knick of time. I found Wood's new characters refreshing and look forward to having their personalities fleshed out even more in future novels. I enjoyed the fast read,new characters and local. If you are looking for a change of pace this is the book for you. It's ENTERTAINMENT!

I liked the characters in this story and would like to see them return in some future exploit. The suspense as to who the mole in the PD reminded me a little of some of the mysteries by Agatha Christy. The story held together well, although I thought the ending a little far-fetched. An enjoyable, lightweight read.

I really liked the characters of this book. The cover is what got my attention and made me pick it up. Once I started scanning the first few pages, I couldn't put it down. I finished it within a week, and was glad to be on vacation to dedicate time to the action-packed events! Daisy especially needs more attention as she is very talented, and Holly is brutally honest and a hardnose when she needs to be. They make a great pair, as females who can stand up for themselves, yet be feminine at the same time. I look forward to a sequel! Holly's Dad proves to be her window to the past as a strong independent military brat, and her lawyer love interest allows for the sassy female to break through and make her realistic. Please .... when can we see them again!

Ok, but not great again, August 28, 2000 Reviewer: ... from Michigan
I agree with . I've read 1/2 dozen of his books and I enjoyed all of them. With the exception of "Chiefs" his style is plain and simple, so heaccomplishes what he set out to do. His books aren't great and they're not lousy, but I find them satisifying. I'm sure he can deliver meatier books, but he doesn't have to. He reminds me of Jack Higgins. Action, action, action.... with a decent plot.
David Schneider