Orchid Blues

October 1, 2001
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 fiancé 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.

January 7, 2002
Audio Reviews reflect PW's assessment of the audio adaptation of a book and should be quoted only in reference to the audio version. Fiction ORCHID BLUES Stuart Woods, read by Jan Maxwell. Putnam Audio, abridged, four cassettes, 5.5 hrs., $24.95 ISBN 0-399-14820-5 Police Chief Holly Barker, Woods's popular heroine from Orchid Beach, is back, and this time it's personal. The morning of their wedding day, Barker's fiancé is shot and killed during a bank robbery. As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that the robbers are part of a much larger, more dangerous organization whose schemes could affect the future of the country. Along with her Doberman, Daisy, and her father, Ham (a retired army chief master sergeant), Barker begins to peel away the layers of mystery surrounding the killers, and what they find is truly shocking. Maxwell's reading is strong and confident. A veteran theater and film actress, she is quite adept at separating each character by accent and tone. Overall, however, the power of her performance comes from the reader's and protagonist's shared strength and engaging personality. Simultaneous release with the Putnam hardcover (Forecasts, Oct. 1, 2001).