Hothouse Orchid

July 13, 2009
Bestseller Woods piles on the coincidences in his modestly entertaining fifth thriller to feature CIA agent Holly Barker (after Iron Orchid
). When Holly returns home to Orchid Beach, Fla., where she was once chief of police, she's reunited with both welcome and unwelcome figures from her past. Renegade ex-CIA agent Teddy Fay, sporting a new identity, has chosen to settle in nearby Vero Beach. Lauren Cade, a former military comrade, is now a sergeant with the Florida State Patrol. Holly is shocked to learn that James Bruno, her former commanding officer who was tried and acquitted of raping Lauren and who once tried to rape Holly herself, is Orchid Beach's new police chief. Holly's not so shocked to learn that a serial killer and rapist is at work in the area. Woods glibly lets the reader stay well ahead of the legal posse tracking the killer while still keeping a card or two up his sleeve. Playful dialogue and romantic sexual escapades lighten the atmosphere.

August 1, 2009
Who poses the greater danger to Holly Barker (Iron Orchid, 2005, etc.): the man who once tried to rape her, or a vigilante who shoots political figures who don't share his views? The answer is the only surprise on tap.

Just as she's been forced to take time off from her job with the CIA, Holly Barker learns that Col. James Bruno, the one-time Army superior who was acquitted of all charges—the attempted rape of Holly and the actual rape of Lt. Lauren Cade—is back on the scene. In fact, he's Holly's successor as police chief of Orchid Beach, Fla. Not surprisingly, the town and environs have recently been home to a series of rapes by someone who's recently graduated to murder. The victims are unimportant, along with the circumstances or the details of each crime scene. What matters is that Holly herself, returning to the area, has been attacked once more, though once more she's had a narrow escape from actual rape. So her interest in nailing Bruno is both personal and stoked by very recent events. Also on hand, and feeling much the same way, are two familiar faces. Lauren Cade, who's taken a job with a special investigative unit working out of nearby Vero Beach, is just as angry at Bruno as ever, and just as determined to see justice done. And ex–CIA operative Teddy Fay (Mounting Fears, 2009, etc.), temporarily on leave from his self-appointed mission of assassinating political figures he thinks are too far to the right. What could possibly happen when Teddy goes up against Bruno—and what surprises could possibly await Holly and Lauren?

The familiar characters' familiar moves are as stylized as Kabuki in this pedestrian procedural. But at least the ending doesn't simply hit the Reset button for the next round.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 1, 2009
In Woods newest thriller, CIA operative Holly Barker has been given a promotion and sent back to Orchid Beach, Florida, for a vacation. Shes looking forward to a little R & R, until she learns that Jim Bruno, the former army colonel who raped a friend of Hollys and tried to do the same to her, has just become Orchid Beachs new chief of police. Can it be a coincidence that the town is plagued by a series of rapes that soon escalates to murder? Holly nearly becomes a victim herself after shes pulled over by a police car. Lauren Cade, the woman Bruno did rape, is working for the state police and takes an interest in the case. In the midst of everything else, the women take new lovers: Holly meets a handsome doctor, while Lauren sees a retired engineer, who just happens to be Teddy Fay, the former CIA operative turned rogue assassin whom Holly has hunted in the past. Then Bruno is found dead. Woods provides plenty of engaging twists and turns, and fans will enjoy seeing Holly do her thing on her old stomping ground.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)