Hothouse Orchid

By: Stuart Woods

Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie

Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

A brand-new page-turning Holly Barker novel from the perennially entertaining New York Times best-selling author Stuart Woods.

After Special Agent Holly Barker lets international terrorist Teddy Fay slip through her fingers for a second time, the CIA thinks she might want a long vacation, at least until Teddy is captured and the bad publicity has blown over. So Holly returns to her hometown of Orchid Beach, Florida, where she had been police chief for many years. But a very unpleasant surprise awaits her.

Many years earlier, Holly and another female army officer had brought charges against their commanding officer for sexual harassment, attempted rape, and rape. Holly had managed to fight him off, but the other woman, a young lieutenant, had not. The officer in question was acquitted of all charges, and has also left the army - for a job as Orchid Beach's new police chief.

Will Holly return to the CIA? Or will she challenge her old nemesis for control of the Orchid Beach Police Department?

©2009 Stuart Woods (P)2009 Penguin

Critic reviews

"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.” (Publishers Weekly)

narrator's voice is beyond annoying

the fluctuation in the narrators voice is extreme ... ruins the story and made me want to stop listening half way through.

A Nice diversion

A nice trifle. This particular presenter has the gift of never making anything seem that threatening. It's a nice little story, but it never gave me a moment of angst, because the performance let me know everything would be fine. Sex, murder and dis-honesty, it will all work out. Not bad, but definitely from the light hors d'oeuvres section of the menu.

Holly Barker Series

loved Holly Barker stories. please write more. This series is interesting as well as Stone Barrinton. also LIke this reader best.

Left me hanging, that is a good thing.

I fist encountered Holly with the Stone Barrington books. When I saw the Orchid books I would not resist. Will be waiting for the next Teddy encounter. Will she ever catch the SOB? :)

The narrator reduced full enjoyment of this book

The story was entertaining but like a good movie, an audio book relies on the talents of the narrator to bring depth to the story and the characters. This narrator was adept at using dialects for many of the local characters but her portrayal of the lead character was not as entertaining. There was an attempt to portray a type of sarcastic repartee between the lead and the central characters such as Robert B Parker ably portrays in his books about Spenser but it fell flat when attempted by the narrator. I had the strong impression that reading the book would have been far more enjoyable.

Hothouse Orchid

Only issue. there was no hot house!!!! Great suspenseful story. Captivated to “read” it all, practically in one go….looking forward to the sequel.

Hothouse did not seem like a Stuart woods book

Maybe it was the narrator….not being Tony Robert’s …..as well as female but it seemed to me like it was another author. It was interesting but not as much as most Stone Barrington stories.

Barely Bearable

The reader of this novel is by far the worst I have encountered. I found myself wanting to abandon the book because of her. Fake accent, very slow and without emotion.

Nice ending.

Enjoyed it thoroughly. Lighter reading but interesting characters and story. Went quickly with great narrative. Pretty good mystery with a couple sudden changes. Leaves some loose ends for future novels.

Fan of Barker

The tie-ins to the Stone and Teddy series are fun reads. More to come! Enjoy!