Rating: 
Summary: A fun read
Review: In Blood Orchid Stuart Woods switches from his Stone Barrington character to a woman police chief, one Holly Barker. It is a positive switch and I found holly much more fun and certainly more interesting than his rather wooden Stone Barrington.
I don't mean to lay out the plot here, since you could easily read any of the other reviews here & get that. If for some reason you have never read any Stuart Woods, well by all means do so. Woods writes the perfect beach novels, good books to take along on a long plane ride. He knows perfectly well how to get his readers to keep turning the pages.
I write myself...and I know how difficult it is to keep the material fresh and moving. But in recent years Woods' books haven't done it for me the way they used to. I sometimes feel as though he's just cranking them out. In this book, Blood Orchid, he is back to a type of character that he once hit gold with---police chiefs. If you have never read his book, Chiefs, go get that one instead. Chiefs had soul. It wasn't just a fun page-turner, it had characters you cared about.
Rating: 
Summary: No Shrinking Violet
Review: In Holly Barker, police chief of Orchid Beach Florida, Stuart Woods has created the toughest, coolest, most ripsnorting female police officer I have encountered yet in mystery fiction. A bit dim though, for in Blood Orchid it takes her a couple of dozen deaths and 200 pages longer than it takes the reader to figure out who the chief villain is. Nevertheless Holly moves through a plot filled with murder, mayhem, and sex so energetically there is scant time to reflect on her obtuseness.Chief Barker dashes back and forth across the state of Florida at breakneck speed investigating a "floater" that landed on her beach. Along the way she offs two baddies with her pistol and another with a steak knife, beds an undercover FBI agent, wraps up a huge mob operation, and still finds time and energy to take flying lessons. Dirty Harry can't hold a candle to her. And through it all, she exhibits a feminine sensibility that contrasts sharply with her derring-do. Surprisingly, in such a violent action story, the dialogue is crisp and witty. Faced with near-certain death, Holly and her hunky Fed trade quips like a couple of stand-up comics. The last scene of the book is very funny. Blood Orchid is a guilty pleasure: a fast-paced confection of constant bloodshed laced with humor.
Rating:
Summary: Another Solid Novel from Stuart Woods
Review: Interestingly, two of my favorite mystery writers, Robert Parker with the Sunny Randall series, and Stuart Woods with Holly Barker, have decided to write from a female viewpoint. Sunny is a divorced private eye who seems to want to get back with her ex. Holly is retired Army turned small town police chief who recently lost her fiancé on their wedding day but is still looking for an interesting and exciting man. Both characters have good relationships with their fathers. Both seem pretty smart. Holly is more capable of taking care of herself but also seems to get in trouble against more vicious, more numerous, and better armed opponents. The differences are as great as the similarities. Sunny works the Boston area. Holly is on Florida's east coast. Sunny is a loner who occasionally works with the local police usually through an ex-boyfriend. Holly has an entire (albeit small) department to manage, engages in professional police procedures and has the usual strained local police-Federal Bureau of Investigation tensions. In this novel Stuart Woods does a very believable job of setting up a conspiracy to defraud millions that involves three killings, some real estate being auctioned by the federal government, and an insider who has decided the federal pension just won't be good enough. From the time the first developer's body is discovered (page two) through the killing of a golfing-developer at the Doral golf course in Miami (page four), and until the final resolution of the case and the FBI's reassessment of its role, you will find each new twist unpredictable and each new personality worth getting to know. Another solid novel from Stuart Woods.
Rating: 
Summary: strong Holly Barker police procedural
Review: It has been almost a year since Jackson died and Holly has buried herself in work trying to block out the pain. The Chief of Police of Orchid Beach, a coastal town on the East Coast of Florida, is usually very quiet. However, when Holly and her father visit a new friend Ed Shine, a sniper fires a shot that almost kills him. Ed is a property developer who bid on a piece of land in Orchid Beach that the federal government is selling and the two other bidders on the property are also assassinated. Holly immediately connects the dots and sees a link since the property in question was used in drug smuggling. She contacts the FBI and an agent tells her that he is sending an undercover operative into the area on a completely separate assignment. The agent and Holly hit it off but Holly is too busy dodging bullets to give their relationship a chance to grow. Stuart Woods famous for his Stone Barrington private eye novels has created a whole new series with it's own unique voice. The Holly Barker police procedurals are fun to read because the author imbues a subtle sense of humor in many of the characters. The heroine really doesn't know why she keeps getting shot at yet she still manages to produce a credible investigation. Mr. Woods just keeps getting better with each book he writes. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: The Holly Barker series seems to be declining...
Review: Normally I'm a huge fan of this series, but as much as it pains me to say this I have to agree with some of the other reviews of this book. 'Orchid Beach' was so far the best book of the series, and 'Orchid Blues' wasn't half bad, but 'Blood Orchid' is nothing more than a light and fluffy read. Stuart Woods has taken a character who I admired as a strong and independant woman and turned her into something short of being a bimbo, with the FBI agent she hooked up with in 'Blood Orchid', and now in 'Reckless Abandon' she hooks up with Stone Barrington...I understand life goes on after the death of Jackson...but does that mean all of a sudden her life needs to revolve around sex with every new guy that comes in her life? What's next, her and Harry Crisp? I miss Jackson...
Hoping the next book is better.
Rating: 
Summary: Weak and Predictable......
Review: Orchid Beach, Florida Police Chief, Holly Barker, is on the job as, once again, murder and mayhem visit what should be a quiet and peaceful little seaside town. It appears that someone is trying to manipulate the bidding of Florida prime real estate development by, literally, killing off the competition. The first suspicious deal, Blood Orchid Estates, happens to be in Holly's own backyard. She's on the case, driving from one end of the sunshine state to the other, tracking down leads, shooting bad guys, and working with a secretive, and of course, hunk of an FBI agent, Grant Early. In no time, she's outmaneuvered the feds and uncovered an international plot that includes drugs, money laundering, mobsters, and contract killers..... Stuart Woods is back with the third installment of his Holly Barker novels, and unfortunately, this is a series that goes downhill with each new entry. The story line, though at times entertaining and action-packed, is silly, weak, and predictable, and it's a wonder that it takes Holly and the FBI over two hundred pages to figure out what's going on when it takes the reader less than fifty. Blood Orchid bills itself as a thriller, but the writing is neither suspenseful nor compelling, and the tension never builds. The dialogue is inane and rarely rings true, and Mr Wood's poorly drawn players are all stereotypical cartoon characters, lacking depth, motivation, and most human qualities. Add to that a ridiculous, almost comical climax to finish things off, and you have the makings of a thriller without the thrills. There are a lot of really good novels out there that shouldn't be missed. Unfortunately, Blood Orchid isn't one of them. Don't waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: 1st Time Reader Makes Discovery: Popcorn!
Review: Popcorn may not be nourishing but it makes for good munching. Never having read Stuart Woods before I started reading Blood Orchid without much in the way of expectations. I was delighted by what I found: popcorn for my brain. The story is fun and moves the reader right along from first page to last. Right on cue, I cheered for the characters I was supposed to like and hissed the characters I was supposed to dislike. There are implausibilities throughout the story. Some chapters read like outlines of chapters. Many characters are less developed than your average roll of film. So what? This book never pretends to be more than the popcorn it is. If you want a more complex snack try Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder, Tony Hillerman's Jim Chee or Ian Rankin's Inspector John Rebus. After all, one does not live by popcorn alone. Heaven help me, however, if popcorn were to disappear from my diet.
Rating:
Summary: Flordia Miasmia
Review: Stuart Woods has produced another forgettable novel that is great for filling the space that is left when filling a lunch hour or a couple of hours by the pool. An hour on the tread mill at the gym. Everytime I pick up one of his books I realize that I am mentally taking break from thinking.
The plots are so predictable, the guy always gets the girl in the first 50 pages, and of course at the first meeting or so and it dosen't take much to figure where you are going to end up about a third of the way through.
Still there is something to be said for the workmanlike craft and the space that is necessary to be filled between really good books
Rating:
Summary: A refreshing change from Barrington boiler plates.
Review: Stuart Woods presents books which are very quick reads. I would highly recommend Sante Fe Rules, & L.A. Times. The early Stone Barrington novels were well developed with interesting characters and good tie-ins between books. However, the last 2 books in that series had serious flaws. The Holly Barker series is more along the lines of his earlier works. The characters are believable and well developed.
Rating:
Summary: very well crafted
Review: the book was great it kept me wanting to read more and more and as the end of the book neared i could not stop reading and had to finish the book do to stuart woods' finely crafted ending that was spectacular. the different narrative skills woods' incorporates in the book allow the reader to know what has happened as holly tries to figure out and find out who and why they did what they did. the last 100 pages of the book really grabbed my attention and made this a very cool book to read
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