Sunday, October 4, 2009

By Reviewed by David and Nancy Beckwith

"Hothouse Orchid"

By Stuart Woods

Putnam, $25.95

When readers were first introduced to Holly Barker in 1998, in "Orchid Beach," she was a 37-year-old, recently retired military police major in the Army. Through four books by Stuart Woods we have watched her reinvent herself into the assistant police chief of Orchid Beach, Fla., Orchid Beach's police chief and finally into a CIA agent stationed in Virginia.

Through this exciting series of books Holly emerged triumphant in a variety of challenges, truly a modem, liberated woman who could outthink, outshoot and outsmart the men she encountered in what was once considered a man's profession.

Now in book five of the series, "Hothouse Orchid," Holly has been appointed the assistant deputy director of operations for the CIA but has one glaring blemish on her record. She has allowed the rogue ex-agent, now international terrorist, Teddy Fay, to escape from several encounters. Teddy is an extremely clever but dangerous former colleague who kills right-wing extremists and Middle Eastern diplomats he deems dangerous to the United States. Holly's superiors, Lance Cabot and Katharine Rule Lee, decide she is overdue for some serious rest and relaxation and order her to recharge her batteries in her hometown of Orchid Beach for a month.

We all know the Wolfian adage, "You can't go home again." Holly finds it to be very true. The police department is not the one she had commanded. In fact the newly appointed chief, James Bruno, is the army colonel whom she had court marshaled after he tried unsuccessfully to rape her when she was still in the service. He succeeded in raping then-Lieutenant Lauren Cade, who now lives in Orchid Beach and works with the Florida State Police. The month turns out to be anything but relaxing as an intriguing array of situations keeps Holly from spending her days relaxing with her dog Daisy on the beach, as ordered. She again becomes involved with Teddy, chases a serial rapist and murderer and meets a new lover, a local emergency room doctor.

"Hothouse Orchid" is filled with local color and destinations extremely familiar to us. Orchid Beach is a thinly disguised Indian River Shores, Fla., an affluent, fully incorporated city on Orchid Island, which it shares with Vero Beach. We lived and had careers in Vero Beach (and still maintain a residence there) for 25 years before becoming part-time residents of the Lower Keys. Stuart Woods brings back floods of memories when he writes about the Jungle Trail, the Ocean Grill, the Yellow Dog Café, the Vero Beach Book Center, Carmel's, the Orchid Island Beach Club, Windsor and other notable locations. In fact we recently attended Woods' standing-room-only presentation and book signing for "Hothouse Orchid" at the Vero Beach Book Center. Woods, like us, resided in Vero Beach for many years prior to his recent return to the Key West area.

We reviewed Woods' Stone Barrington novel, "Loitering with Intent," in these pages several months ago (and which we recommended as a must read). Now it's October and we are reviewing "Hothouse Orchid." This is because Woods is a very prolific writer. Whereas it took him eight years to write his first book and two years to write its successor, he now writes three books a year. This year, because of an accelerated publication schedule, he'll have four books released. He has ongoing series featuring Stone Barrington, Holly Barker, Ed Eagle and Rick Barron. You'd think his imagination was stretched to the breaking point but that does not seem to be the case.

This latest Holly Barker story is a page-turner that includes Holly's father, Ham, who provides sage advice with humorous results; also her stepmother, Ginny, a flight instructor, plus past co-workers and friends who return to the page and bring continuity to the series. If continuity's not enough, one of the characters in "Hothouse Orchid" makes the observation, "I don't think I've ever read a thriller with such a convoluted plot."

At his recent presentation at the Vero Beach Book Center (he also appeared at Voltaire Books in Key West yesterday), Woods was asked, How does one learn how to write? His advice: You just do it. You initiate a project and you have the discipline to stay with it to its conclusion. Don't worry about agents and publishers. Just concentrate on creating a quality manuscript. He also recommended that the neophyte should work for a publication like a newspaper or magazine to become disciplined in turning out a certain number of words on a set deadline.

His other admonition was that a person should be a passionate reader before attempting to become an impassioned writer. He said that even as a child he was an avid reader who'd shun other activities to pursue his love.

That's solid advice from a person who's written more than 40 books, 24 of which have made the New York Times best-seller list.

Thank you, Mr. Woods, for your talent and your advice.