Cover of Orchid Beach
Read Time: ~6.8 hr

Orchid Beach

by Stuart Woods (1999)

About this book

From Amazon: 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.

Setting / LocationGlobal
Story EraModern Era
Protagonist / CoreOrchid Beach Lead Character

Readers who enjoyed this also loved

Cover of Signal loss

Signal loss

Garry Disher

A pair of hit men working a job for a meth kingpin have a very bad day, and the resulting bushfire draws attention to a drug lab and two burned bodies in a Mercedes. With meth-related crime on the rise, interdepartmental tensions mount, and Inspector Hall Challis soon finds himself fighting to keep control of his case. Meanwhile, Sergeant Ellen Destry is hunting for a serial rapist who is extremely adept at not leaving clues--

Cover of The absent one

The absent one

Jussi Adler-Olsen

Detective Carl Mørck investigates the twenty-year-old murders of a brother and sister whose confessed killer may actually be innocent, a case with ties to a homeless woman and powerful adversaries. This is the second book in the author's "Department Q" series.

Cover of Bad Blood

Bad Blood

Arne Dahl

When a Swedish literary critic is found tortured to death in a closet at Newark International Airport, the police realize that the murderer made off with the victim's ticket and boarded a flight to Stockholm. With no clear motive in sight, Detectives Paul Hjelm and Kerstin Holm of Intercrime's A-Unit learn that the method of torture used was not only a highly specialized means of extracting information secretly developed during the Vietnam War-- allowing the victim to whisper, but not to scream-- but also that it was the modus operandi of an allegedly deceased homicidal maniac known only as the Kentucky Killer.

Cover of A swollen red sun

A swollen red sun

Matthew McBride

In Gasconade County, Missouri -- once called the meth capital of the world -- Deputy Sherriff Dale Banks discovers $52,000 hidden in the broken-down trailer that Jerry Dean Skaggs uses for cooking crystal. And he takes it. Banks knows what he did was wrong, but he did it for all the right reasons. At least, he thinks so. But for every wrong, there is a consequence. Jerry Dean can't afford to lose that $52,000 -- he owes it to his partners, a crooked cop, and the fearsome Reverend Butch Pogue, who controls the town's meth production with an iron fist. To avoid the holy man's wrath, Jerry Dean sets in motion a series of events that will threaten Banks's family, his life, and everything he thinks he knows about the world.

Orchid Beach by Stuart Woods | Literally Just Books