Orchid Beach is the first in the series featuring former military officer now police officer Holly Barker, and it's a decent read. And to build on the theme expressed at the outset, the attractive Florida police official (she is hired as Deputy Chief) is permitted to have a healthy sex life just like Stone Barrington, though interestingly Woods quickly pairs her off with a stable love interest. So Woods may not have Holly pinball around with various liaisons like his male protagonist.
Is it sexist that Woods is making his female character more sexually conservative and prim and proper than his male hero? Maybe mildly so. But then again, this is only the first book in this series, so who knows what will happen to Holly in this area in future books?
Even more interesting is that Orchid Beach, which features a female lead, ultimately turns into more of a big, broad "men's action thriller", complete with an assault on the bad guys' huge compound, than any of the Stone Barrington books (at least the early ones I've read so far). Well, Stone did assault and destroy his enemies' yacht in Swimming to Catalina, but that was just a quick chapter or two.
The big action-packed close of the novel was fun, but I enjoyed the set-up and middle chapters, where we get to meet and know Holly and her supporting cast, more. So while I certainly recommend Orchid Beach if you enjoy Stuart Woods, I hope subsequent installments have action driven more by the cast and their personalities, and less big, broad action (ultimately featuring lots of generic cops, FBI agents, and bad-guy foot soldiers) than this book offers. Because Holly, her dad, and her boyfriend, as well as a few other cast members (including her dog!), are good characters who are fun to read about.
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