In Holly Barker, police chief of Orchid Beach Florida, Stuart Woods has created the toughest, coolest, most ripsnorting female police officer I have encountered yet in mystery fiction. A bit dim though, for in Blood Orchid it takes her a couple of dozen deaths and 200 pages longer than it takes the reader to figure out who the chief villain is. Nevertheless Holly moves through a plot filled with murder, mayhem, and sex so energetically there is scant time to reflect on her obtuseness.

Chief Barker dashes back and forth across the state of Florida at breakneck speed investigating a "floater" that landed on her beach. Along the way she offs two baddies with her pistol and another with a steak knife, beds an undercover FBI agent, wraps up a huge mob operation, and still finds time and energy to take flying lessons. Dirty Harry can't hold a candle to her. And through it all, she exhibits a feminine sensibility that contrasts sharply with her derring-do.

Surprisingly, in such a violent action story, the dialogue is crisp and witty. Faced with near-certain death, Holly and her hunky Fed trade quips like a couple of stand-up comics. The last scene of the book is very funny. Blood Orchid is a guilty pleasure: a fast-paced confection of constant bloodshed laced with humor.

Understand this: Stuart Woods is not Ernest Hemingway or William Faulkner, nor does he try to be. Woods writes two books every year and his readers enjoy something that not many authors can promise. He never fails to entertain. Some of his books are better than others. Chiefs, for example, is one of the better mysteries that I've ever read, while The Short Forever was just decent. One thing readers can count on from Woods is that he will deliver an interesting, exciting, entertaining thriller regardless of his subject.

Blood Orchid is the third novel centered around Holly Barker. Of Woods' three recurring characters (Will Lee, Stone Barrington, and Holly Barker), Holly is probably the least compelling to most readers, though some prefer her to Stone. Despite this, she is nonetheless an interesting protagonist who draws the reader into the story and has us pulling for her to succeed.

The storyline is typical Woods with few twists and turns - some of which will surprise, while some of which will be picked out by savvy readers. I've read all 25 of Stuart Woods novels, and while I generally feel that his earlier works are far superior to his later books, I find that if I open his newest book knowing what to expect and allowing myself to be entertained, I am seldom disappointed.

Also recommended: Chiefs, Run Before the Wind, and White Cargo by Stuart Woods for readers who want to sample his early stuff. Anything by James Patterson or Jeffery Deaver. Keep an eye out for Dirty Work, the new Stone Barrington novel in April 2003.

As the third book in the Holly Barker series, I believe Blood Orchid is the best yet!

Still recovering from the shock of Jackson's death and trying to move on with her life, Holly must now deal with attacks on her own life! The book opens with Palmetto Gardens up for sale, and the high-bidders in a pool of blood. Enter Ed Shine, the highest bidder left alive, with a hefty 60 million purchase! Palmetto Gardens becomes Blood Orchid Estates, and the corpses start piling up.

There are several attempts made at Holly's own life, and her new boyfriend/under cover FBI friend is not much help, since he and Harry Crisp (making an appearance in each book of the series) are both with-holding information from her...not to mention that someone has bugged her house.

Soon the intruder ends up dead in the river and Barker begins to investigate. She ends up south of Orchid Beach with possible Mob involvement, a dead Russian, a suspicious restaurant, and more and more dead bodies.

Holly must determine who is bugging her and Ham's houses, who is trying to kill her, and why. Is Ed Shine and Blood Orchid involved? Or is this stemming from a past case and someone Holly put behind bars?

The story starts with murder and ends with murder. You will have to read to find out who survives!

Toby Young certainly does lose friends and alienate people in this sometimes interesting, sometimes boring memoir of his life as an English journalist in New York. The most interesting parts of the book relate to his stint at Conde Nast (or "The Conde Nasties") working for Vanity Fair magazine, and his clashes with the editor, Graydon Carter. Young is fired after two years, and it is really no surprise. Young does not play the game, finds his sophomoric antics humorous, and just doesn't seem to fit in at the glossy magazine.

Toby Young's life during this period is pretty depressing. He can't hold down a job, is threatened with a lawsuit by Tina Brown, and is even fired by Bob Guccione, Jr. Toby Young does not try to paint himself as anything other than he is; a middle aged, balding, short, anti-social alcoholic with a poor work ethic. He compares the UK and New York endlessly, and complains of not being able to "get laid" in New York City, because the women are "shallow." However, he is equally shallow in judging the women he does date, and he treats them very badly, then wonders why they "dump him."

Toby Young is an unapologetic jerk, yet his book does have some appeal. It is interesting to view the world of Manhattan and its social structure, the publishing world, and the view of an outsider on what makes it tick. There are some interesting tidbits, but Young often stretches things to fill space. He could have told these stories as a series of essays, making the book half its size and twice as readable. It ends up being very difficult to find the enthusiasm to finish the book, but, you want to know what happened to this fellow, anyhow.

If you want to learn "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People," by all means follow Toby Young's lead: take a lot of money for a job you don't care about doing well, name-drop, be a boorish drunk, and show absolutely no respect for the people who helped you get to where you are.

That's pretty much Young's book in a nutshell. This jerk's star-struck behavior would embarrass even the most shameless groupie. He's so busy trying to out-shock the people that he last shocked that he's not even a good friend.

However, the book's saving grace is that Young is a great author. I wouldn't want to meet this man, but I'm not sorry that I finished the book. A lesser author telling the same story wouldn't have been able to get the tale published!

One hopes that he learned something about himself when he wrote; further, one hopes that he has outgrown that old character for good. Would I recommend this book? Possibly, to someone so self-centered that he wouldn't realize that I was handing him a mirror. It's certainly funny, in a very disturbing way.

It is very rare these days that I find a book engrossing enough to read in one sitting and which also makes me laugh out loud. Toby Young, who has an unerring ability to focus on his own shortcomings, does an excellent job of explaining exactly how not to get on in New York. His waggish personality, a healthy appetite for drink and a large stock of off-colour jokes -- all attributes which would serve you well as a journalist in London -- ensure he makes a total mess of pretty much everything he does in Manhattan, the mothership of all that is politically correct in the United States. Indeed, when Vanity Fair boss Graydon Carter fires Young, he tells our hapless hero that he has a brown thumb. "Everything you touch turns to ****," he explains with a laugh. Young is the squarest of pegs in a world where all the holes are round and to make matters worse, a friend of his who went to Los Angeles at the same time strikes immediate and lucrative success. Young is also very funny about his total lack of success with American women, largely because they quickly realise he is broke (and has quite a few complexes, as well as an impressively large collection of appalling pick-up lines). Two-thirds of the way through, the book suddenly becomes more serious as Young realises he has hit rock bottom and starts groping for a way out. To say much more would give too much away but it's well worth sticking through to the end.

This should have been a worthy tribute to SAC but its content has been badly let down by appalling standards of reproduction.

Schiffer books are not cheap and this one is no exception so it would be reasonable to hope that the highest standards of printing would prevail. Not so! There's hardly a pure black or white tone in the whole book - nothing but muddy greys. The colour shots (those that aren't faded overall to pink, that is) have tone reproduction that is harsh, contrasty and garish.

I've bought other Schiffer books and been happy with the print quality so this one came as a surprise and a big let-down. If you see this book on sale at half-price, save your money - it really doesn't deserve shelf space.

With only one other review I had to write and give my opinion. I had the opportunity to view this book at my local hobby shop. Because of the price I decided to look at Amazon - BUT - I found this book to be extremely interesting in its content. Being an old SAC crewdog, it brought back alot of great memories of a proud service and the people that made it work. Most of the photos were obviously taken by members of SAC while on duty. Not an easy task given the security measures we all had to follow. While it may not win any awards for its photography, I find the book to be accurate and a must have. I must admit that my preview of the book was only 90 minutes long. The owner asked if I was going to buy it because he wasn't operating a reading room. I'm sure once a copy is in my library my rating number will be a 5.

Photo history of SAC from being to end.... I saw many of the planes I worked and flew on in the book.... One of the best photo albums of planes I have ever seen..

I'm only half-way through this book, and I'm only continuing because I hate to quit a book once I've started it. I would never have thought I would write a luke-warm review for an Anne McCaffrey book; she's my favorite fantasy author. But this book is so mediocore. I was really happy to see her continue this series, as I enjoyed the original three books. But what happened? I agree with one reviewer that it doesn't even seem like McCaffrey's writing. Since I haven't reached the end of the book, I don't know how it ends. But I hope it ENDS. I don't want to finish this and be left holding on for more.

Hey folks, this is just another book in the series. It is good. It adds to the original story and does a fine job. It does get into to much detail and no real set on the edge of your reading recliner but hey a story is a story and kick back and enjoy, especially on a cold stormy wintery night.

Just read it, you just can't wait till the next book..