Orchid Blues

as advertised

Orchid Blues is the second in the series of Holly Barker mysteries. I haven’t read any of the others. Too bad, because if they are all as good as this, they would be worth reading.Holly Barker is the police chief of Orchid Beach Florida. When the story opens, she is about to marry her boyfriend, Jackson Oxenhandler. Unfortunately, on his last trip to the bank before his wedding, Jackson runs into a bank robbery and somehow manages to get shot and killed.Holly, understandably, vows revenge.Working with her friend, FBI agent Harry Crisp, she starts to investigate the two newest employees of the bank on the theory that the robbery may have been an inside job. In the course of this investigation, she discovers a town that doesn’t appear on any map.The town is beside a lake, so Holly goes with her father, Ham, to check it out, on the pretext of going fishing. The first thing they discover is a gun show in progress. The people running the gun show appear to be a little strange.In an effort to find out more about them, Ham pretends to be sympathetic to conservative militia types such as they appear to be, and pretty soon they ask him to join them. His military record and excellent marksmanship help a lot in this endeavor.As he gets more deeply involved in the organization, Ham works with Holly and the FBI to get listening devices planted in the headquarters building.He accomplishes feats of espionage that Tom Clancy’s John Clark would appreciate. They seem to want him to shoot some mysterious target, but he can’t find out who it is. There are some close calls before they finally take off to run their ‘operation.’Meanwhile, Holly and her FBI friends are also frantically trying to find out who the secret target is.Pretty spooky.

Good read

Love this author's books. Easy to read, keeps you engaged and has a lot of surprises and mystery. Characters are in his other novels.

Started reading Stuart Wood's Holly Barker series for the comfort of escape. First book was a sexy, romantic, violent, murder mystery. All good. But the second book did an about face and was a scary investigation into subversive American groups. Lots of action, lots of mystery, certainly gripping, but concerning as well as escapist. Side note: Woods is pretty accurate with ancillary things like the Atlantic coast of Florida, how to fly airplanes, sail a boat, shoot a gun, drink a vodka gimlet, etc. Probably done serious research. Kudos.

And I thoroughly enjoyed Orchid Blues! Had a hard time putting it down! I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Wow.. This was a great read. From the moment you started to read all the way to the end. Constant movement and quite an ending. Looking forward to the next Holly Barker Series. I've read almost all of the Stone Barrington series. Mr. Woods... What an amazing imagination you have. Love all your stories!

This was another one that was eerily close to real life and real life white supremacy groups. This one brought Stone Barrington in briefly.

Since reading my first Stuart Woods book in 1999 I've been hooked! His novels are so easy to read with none of the unneccesary flowery descriptions that a lot of novels contain.Orchid Blues in the second in the Orchid series featuring Detective Holly Barker, her father Ham and best friend Daisy the dog. Without giving away the plot the action in this one starts almost from the first page with a crime that embroils Holly and co in an underworld of deceipt and the discovery that a cult like sect have aspirations including taking over control of the country!!I was unable to function normally until I reached the last page, much to the dismay of my house which always suffers when Stuart Woods is around!

Great read.

Excellent book from UK Bookstore - service was great.

4 stars for nail-biting suspence.The main villian was a wily, smart competitor. I found myself wishing Ham would finally get his chance to unleash some whoop ass on him.

Holly Barker is equal to Stone Barrington in mystery, intrigue and romance. Excellent support for Stone Barrington series.