Orchid Blues (Holly Barker) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "He waited until the last of the line had entered the cinema for the eight o'clock movie..." (more)
Key Phrases: scrambled cell phone, tango foxtrot, warehouse bank, Orchid Beach, Lake Winachobee, Franklin Morris (more...)

Editorial Reviews

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.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Signet (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451206711
• ISBN-13: 978-0451206718
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 3.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,132 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 2 in The Holly Barker Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TWO VOICES = TWICE AS GOOD AUDIO, November 24, 2001

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: Orchid Blues (Holly Barker Novels) (Audio Cassette)

Just as two heads are better than one two voices, those of Dick Hill and Susie Breck, beat one in this satisfying reading of the second adventure of Police Chief Holly Barker and her erstwhile companion, Daisy, an unbelievable Doberman.

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.

- Gail Cooke

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Plot to Nowhere...., December 1, 2001

By	Roz Levine (Virginia) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Orchid Blues (Holly Barker Novels) (Hardcover)

Orchid Beach Police Chief, Holly Barker, is working on a bank robbery and murder that's hit close to home, and turned very personal. The well planned crime was almost perfectly executed, and the thieves didn't leave a shred of evidence behind, except for the body of an innocent bystander. Now they're four million dollars richer, and Holly is on a mission to find the culprits and bring them to justice. As she begins investigating what appears to be an inside job, she discovers evidence that points to an unknown little town inhabited by a mysterious and closed-mouth group of gun lovers. With the help of an old FBI friend, and her father, retired Army chief master sergeant, Ham, the three decide to infiltrate this clan, and find out what's really going on..... Stuart Woods' latest is a silly and mindless read that goes nowhere. The writing is uninspired, the dialogue, inane, and the story line thin, and neither suspenseful nor very compelling. This book needs to be tightened up and given some direction. His characters are lifeless and one dimensional, and need to be fleshed out. At times, it's hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys, and even harder to care. Mr Woods' all time favorite character, Stone Barrington, makes a cameo appearance, but it's never clear why he's there, and he adds nothing to the plot. Add to that a predictable ending, with a lot of loose ends left hanging, and you have the makings of a mediocre novel, at best. There are a lot of great thrillers out there, unfortunately Orchid Blues isn't one of them.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Still entertaining after all these years, December 21, 2002

By	T. Judd "booknut" (ALEXANDRIA, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Reviews of Stuart Woods' books seem to fall into three categories: Those who love them, those who find them shallow, and those who pine for the Woods of old whose books were so full of suspense and intrigue with great plots and lots of imagination. But not every book can be Chiefs (his first novel) or Imperfect Strangers (an early non-series novel). But they are still fast easy reads, great for the DC Metro commute.

Holly Barker is back for a second time. She's is still an appealing enough character and the story has some interesting moments. There is little imagination to the plotting and its all fairly predictable. Still, there are characters to like and root for, Holly, her father Ham, and her dog Daisy. And beyond those who seem to wear a sign saying "I'm Evil: Hate Me" there are always one or two about whom we are not to sure. The FBI Agent from the first Holly Barker novel, Harry Crisp, plays a real jerk, something of a comedown from the first book. The idea of putting Ham up for this "job" with the bad guys, consdidering the stakes involved, is rather silly. But as other reviewers have pointed out, Woods is still very good on the action scenes.

I wonder if other readers have noticed, as I did, Holly's strange reaction to Oxenhandler's death. And how long did it take to figure out who was in the line at the bank with him?

True, Woods is no Hemmingway or Faulkner, as another reviewer pointed out. Sad to say, he started out like one of them, but he's more a franchise now, as indicated in the author's note that is so annoying and which now appears at the end of each of his books.