Book Review: Iron Orchid

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Iron Orchid     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Stuart Woods
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural   Woman Main Character   Government Agency
Series: Holly Barker # 4
Putnam, Oct. 2005, $25.95, 304 pp.

Teddy Fay Worked for the CIA for forty years, eventually becoming a Tech Services coordinator and when he
retired, he erased all his files in the Agency’s computers. They have no pictures or fingerprints of the man who
disappeared with astonishing ease. He started killing Right Wing politician including the Speaker of the House
and when he was close to being caught, he blew up the plance he was flying and jumped out into the ocean.

While the FBI and CIA think he is dead, Teddy relocates to New York when he starts killing terrorists, the
enemies of America as he calls them. A joint FBI-CIA task force is formed and one of the CIA members is Holly
Barker, the former Chief of Police in Orchid Beach, Florida. They recruited her and she eagerly grabbed the
chance to become an operative. She is the only agent to see Holly and she is in the forefront of the
investigation as Teddy tries to avoid the agents while continuing on his mission.

The antagonist is the focus and the star of IRON ORCHID as he calmly hacks into CIA and FBI computers with the
help of an inside source. Readers will be simultaneously drawn to and repelled by this character who marches to
his own drummer. The protagonist takes to her CIA training like a duck to water and is able to carry her share
of the work load on her uses first case as an agent. Stuart Woods has written a compelling and entertaining cat
and mouse caper.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner