Rating: 
Summary: More stupidity than you can shake a stick at
Review: I am unemployed. Perhaps I'm qualified to be a police chief of a town on the southern Florida coast.When someone has obviously bugged my phone, I use it to coordinate strategy with the FBI during a crisis. When someone is obviously trying to kill me, I post a lone cop outside my home to protect me. Call me paranoid, but I'm not feeling secure. Certainly, when my Doberman, who is used to frolicking in the dunes alone, will not enjoy my company when she needs to relieve herself during a time that someone is trying to kill me. But Holly, she's a different breed of law enforcer. She takes the dog for a walk. Uh-huh. Someone who has bugged my phones is obviously incapable of knowing who I'm sleeping with, so when I'm on the lam, it would never occur to them that I'm at his home, which is just down the beach from my own home. It always helps to have enemies who are dumb as rocks. So dumb that I continue to commute to and from work each day and they have know clue where I'm currently living. Here's a gem. Page 200 of the paperback. "Harry, do you ever have the feeling that this business is bigger than..." To which Harry, the ever-sharp FBI man responds, "No." Nothing like a Fed who can envision the possibilities. I assumed who the bad guy was at the beginning of the book. Hmm...Maybe I should give some thought to being a novelist. I'm obviously qualified. At least I wouldn't waste space with countless conversations that begin with, "Holly Barker". Even an amateur knows a better way to get to the point than detail every trivial bit of conversation. But I guess that's too much to expect of a professional writer who's obviously on cruise control.
Rating:
Summary: Holly's beginning to slip a bit
Review: I heartily agree with reviewer Jerry Bull who states that Holly Barker outshines Stone Barrington, another of Stuart Woods' series heroes. But that isn't saying much these days. Woods' first series was about the Lees of Delano, Georgia. They went from flesh and blood to cardboard. Stone Barrington has suffered a similar fate, although he was somewhat shallow to begin with. And now the plucky Ms. Barker. She's still the Chief of Police in Orchid Beach. She's still quite good at it, and provides a well developed (no pun) heroine that the reader can easily relate to. She's mature; no posturing to prove she's as good as the boys: its obvious she knows what she's doing. Now for the bad news: pretty good plot, not so good execution. I had the feeling that all of the bloated dialogue was there just to get the thing (the hardback) as close to 300 pages as possible. The utter politeness of all the conversations borders on silly, and one conversation Holly has with Ed Shine before he invites her to "go to ground" at one his guest cottages demonstrated stunningly poor judgement on Holly's part. It made me want to scream at her. And, speaking of Stone Barrington, I fear that Blood Orchid's lengthy discussions of menus and wine lists means that the Orchid Beach series is headed down the same path. On the upside is the fate bestowed on Harry Crisp. He has taken a nosedive in this series and it was hard to tell if he was dumb as a box of rocks or just plain mean. Woods may get some of the technical jargon wrong but his characterization of the FBI is right on the money. Each of Mr. Wood's books for the last few years has ended with an author's note which many readers have found annoying and patronizing to his fans. I agree. With all the criticism that reviewers are spreading on these pages it might seem the better part of marketing judgement to dispense with the I-Am-Stuart- Woods-And-You-Are-Not piece and just find another way to deals with all those unwanted cards and letters. The volume may fall on its own.
Rating:
Summary: A first for me....
Review: I kept putting this book down and coming back to it at times. Usually I try to read a Woods book in one or two sittings, something that's easy to do given his short chapters. I just couldn't get into this plot, and I found that his sharp writing style had faltered in this one. I also found myself lacking in sympathy for any characters. I still like Woods' work, but he's going to have to pick it up a notch for me to keep getting his books in hardcover. Otherwise I'm going to be waiting for paperbacks.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Review: I listened to the audio version of "Blood Orchid", featuring Holly Barker, chief of police in a small community in Florida. This was my first exposure to Stuart Woods' work in any form. After seeing other reviews, I know that Woods shouldn't be judged soley on the one book, this not being an example of his best work. I was not impressed with any aspect of the book. The book plodded along for a long time, but not in the sense that the plot was being developed, but that the author was filling the pages. I still don't understand the purpose of wiretapping Holly's home and have to conclude that this was filler. The ending was not surprising. I found the characters uninteresting and flat, made more so by the reading, in particular the female reader who read for Holly and the other women in the book. I don't think audio books can ever improve upon the written word, but they can certainly bring out the worst. Holly's reader spoke in a monotone with improper inflection as though she was reading the words with no sense of content. If Holly was supposed to be strong and dynamic, this did not come across. The male reader was better, even though I didn't find his voice pleasant or capable of much range. I thought that he flubbed his lines a few times, correcting himself. A quality recording would have edited them out, but it's possible that these corrections were part of the text. Holly's relationship with Grant, who seemed too stupid to be an FBI agent, was hokey. We have Holly, still hurting from the death of her fiance and not getting involved in new relationships. She then meets Grant for the first time at a dinner meeting, immediately making sexually suggestive remarks, and going to bed with him the next night. I would have thought that she'd be more tentative. The sexual banter between them was silly, particularly listening to it in audio. At the end of the book, it did not seem credible that Holly would be informed by an FBI deputy director of personnel changes at the FBI before the personnel themselves were informed. The book is intended to be a light thriller, but that's no reason for the author not to do a good job of it.
Rating: 
Summary: what the???
Review: I LOVE Stuart Woods. I have read pretty near all of his books. However, this book bombed! WHY? Because it is just so far fetched it's unreal. Holly Barker is the chief of police in Orchid Beach, some small town that no one has ever heard of. She seems to go outside of her jurisdiction more in this book then five local cops do in a life time. She hooks up with an undercover FBI agent in the book, and trusts and relies on him, yet she doesn't even know what his undercover case is. It's just way too long and dragged out. During the first 4-5 chapters, you are able to figure out who the "bad guy" is, and you are forced to wade through 300 more pages of her not realizing it's him, and befriending him. Stick to Stone Barrington, he is at least more credible then this.
Rating:
Summary: what the???
Review: I LOVE Stuart Woods. I have read pretty near all of his books. However, this book bombed! WHY? Because it is just so far fetched it's unreal. Holly Barker is the chief of police in Orchid Beach, some small town that no one has ever heard of. She seems to go outside of her jurisdiction more in this book then five local cops do in a life time. She hooks up with an undercover FBI agent in the book, and trusts and relies on him, yet she doesn't even know what his undercover case is. It's just way too long and dragged out. During the first 4-5 chapters, you are able to figure out who the "bad guy" is, and you are forced to wade through 300 more pages of her not realizing it's him, and befriending him. Stick to Stone Barrington, he is at least more credible then this.
Rating: 
Summary: Read others first
Review: I was disappointed in Blood Orchid. I have read the entire Stone Barrington series and the Holly Barker series, as well, and I would definitely recommend reading Orchid Beach and Orchid Blues first. Blood Orchid was not as engaging as the others and Ham should have been included more. Also, it was so obvious who the "bad guy" was. I actually skimmed the last 20-30 pages of the book, just to get to the end and confirm my predictions; I have never done that before with a Woods book. The dialogue was unrealistic and I don't think it should have focused on Palmetto Gardens again. A disappointing read...
Rating:
Summary: Weak
Review: I'm not always able to figure out the "bad guy" in mysteries, but this one was so obvious as to be laughable. The characters (except for Daisy) are wooden and the whole plot is unrealistic and not worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: More stupidity than you can shake a stick at
Review: I'm unemployed. Perhaps some coastal city off Florida will appoint me police chief. I'm obviously very qualified. So someone's been bugging your telephones. Several chapters later, in a crisis, you pick it up to call your extremely inept FBI contact to discuss strategy. And you're staking out an Explorer in front of a building. The person you are surveiling has gone inside. Sometime later, you see the Explorer moving, but you never saw anyone get inside it. So when you coordinate with the FBI to relieve you from your tailing duties, you direct both cars to the Explorer. Call me suspicious, but I would've instructed one to stake out the building. Okay, someone's trying to kill you. You hide out down the beach from your home (anyone who's been trying to kill you and has been in your home a couple times would not have figured out who you're sleeping with). And go out to walk your dog. Isn't that clever? Call the SPCA on me. Or even Animal Control. But if I had a dog who was accustomed to frolicking on the beach without me, that's exactly what she would be doing if someone were trying to kill me. Oh yeah. During this time you're on the lam, you continue to go to work and commute to your hideout, which is being watched by a single cop. Dock my pay. I'm not going to work. Call me paranoid, too. How many times must the reader endure a telephone conversation that starts with "Holly Barker"? Does the author get paid by the word? Here's some useful verbiage following a waiter delivering a bowl of lobster bisque to Holly's table. "This is wonderful," Holly said, tasting it. How could I possibly understand the context of her comment without the last two words? A conversation with the inept FBI guy. Holly and he are talking about the twist and turns of the case (Page 200, paperback): Holly: ...do you ever have the feeling that this business is bigger than....
FBI guy: No. That's what I like, a law officer who considers the possibilities. The dialogue throughout the action-packed ending (provided you haven't watched TV since the 1960s) seemed to come out of "Moonlighting" (at least that was the 1980s). Hey, maybe I should write books for a living, I'm sure I'm qualified.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining Fun and a Fast Read
Review: If you are already a Stuart Woods fan, you will definitely enjoy this book. Only problem, is it moves at such a brisk pace you are sad when the fun ends! The reviewer that is expecting some serious hard-core thriller doesn't understand that some of us just read for fun and enjoyment. Only readers that want some fun should read Stuart Woods.
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