Orchid Beach

By: Stuart Woods

Narrated by: Debra Monk

#1 New York Times bestselling author Stuart Woods delivers a riveting thriller that introduces his first female protagonist, Deputy Chief of Police Holly Barker.

Forced into early retirement at thirty-seven, smart, attractive, and fiercely independent Major Holly Barker trades in her bars as a military cop for the badge of deputy chief of police in Orchid Beach, Florida. But below the sunny surface of this sleepy, well-to-do island town lies an evil that escalates into the cold-blooded murder of one of Holly's new colleagues.

An outsider, Holly has little to go on for answers and no one to help her—except Daisy, a Doberman of exceptional intelligence and loyalty that becomes her companion and protector. The closer Holly gets to the truth, the more she knows that it'll take one smart dog with guts to sniff out this killer—before he can catch her first.

It's a really good mystery

This was the second time reading this book and it was as good as the first time! Fast read. Fast listen.

Great plot , reader not good

Great plot ! Ms Monk is not a good voice for the variety of characters . She sounded the same for most of them so it was difficult to determine which character was speaking. There were several names that were similar . It was a great story !

great story and performance!

Holly is the right mix of tough and save...and the story kept me interested all the time.

I enjoyed the narration, but the story felt flat.

I was going to judge this more harshly, until I realized it was a 5 hour abridging of a 9 hour book, so I'll give benefit of the doubt for things that seemed to happen too quickly and too easily, and a plot that seemed thin and lacking in so many of the surprises that I kept expecting around every corner.

I never get abridged books, and this one is an example of why.

But, two things bugged me most, one concerning the production of the audiobook, another with the author's decisions.

First, each chapter ends and begins with disruptive, jarring, out of place Seinfeldesque music. A sentence will end and suddenly there's this ludicrous music in your ear. That's a small thing.

The big, second thing made me stop listening to log on and write this review. The author makes his generally intelligent character do one of the most inane things I've ever seen which, frustratingly, I can't reveal without spoilers. It was just lazy.

The protagonist is all twisted up about what's going on, so she decides to go to an incredibly secluded spot, by herself, as close as possible to the people that she knows, without a doubt, just did some horrible things to someone less than 24 hours beforehand, where she then has to try not to suffer the exact same fate.

It makes no sense that she'd make this move. None. It's completely artificial and makes you shake your fist at the author for thinking you would ever swallow this "plot turn". Just awful. I've not felt so insulted by an author in all of my years of reading. It was just so completely remarkable, I had to remark on it. I was, and still am, stunned.

Suspense and humor

This was a very enjoyable "listen". The characters were interesting and quirky, the plot was fast moving. The only thing that would improve this story would be an "unabridged" version to fill in the gaps and give greater depth to the characters. Monk's reading was terrific! Brava!!