New York Times bestselling author Stuart Woods has entertained and engrossed readers with hisfast-paced, suspenseful novels including Swimming to Catalina, Dead in the Water, Dirt, andChiefs. Now from this master storyteller comes a riveting thriller introducing an exciting addition tothe pantheon of fictional sleuths. Smart, attractive, and fiercely independent, Major Holly Barker, thearmy-brat daughter of a master sergeant, has been forced into early retirement at the age of thirty-sevenas the result of a scandalous sexual harassment case. With the help of her dad she makes the move tocivilian life, becoming deputy chief of police in Orchid Beach, Florida. But below the calm, sunnysurface of this sleepy, well-to-do coastal island town lies a web of evil and deceit that escalates when acolleague and another associate are brutally gunned down. Alone, an outsider with no clues to go on, findingthe killers won't be easy for Holly, and her seemingly low-key new career soon thrusts her into adangerous game of cat and mouse. Surrounded by a staff of officers she neither knows nor trusts, Hollyfinds help in a most unexpected source--Daisy, a Doberman of exceptional intelligence and loyalty whoquickly becomes her inseparable companion and protector. The closer she gets to unraveling the mystery ofOrchid Beach, however, the nearer Holly comes to danger darker and more deadly than any she could everhave anticipated. Filled with the dazzling twists and sizzling turns that have made his novels nationalbestsellers and international hits, Orchid Beach ranks as one of Stuart Woods's most inventive andbrilliantly drawn works--an entertaining, nonstop tale that will keep readers on the edge of their seats asis races from the first page to its exhilarating conclusion.