Iron Orchid Hardcover - 2005

by Stuart Woods

Holly Barker, the small-town cop turned CIA agent, tracks a master of disguise-and a consummate killer.

Iron Orchid, Stuart Woods's latest in the Holly Barker series, pits the no-nonsense cop against a very elusive killer-Teddy Fay, a villain first introduced in Capital Crimes-and the sparks fly.

Authorities thought they had seen the last of Teddy Fay-the ex-CIA tech wizard who kills his political targets for sport-when his plane exploded off the coast of Maine. But they underestimated him once, and they're in danger of doing so again. Now they've found irrefutable evidence that he is alive and on his way to hit a group who will never see him coming.

Holly, having resigned her position as the Orchid Beach Chief of Police to work for the CIA, joins the elite task force tracking Fay in New York City. There, she begins to suspect that there are boulders being left unturned in the investigation. Fay seems privy to too many secrets-and employs tricks only an insider would know. He begins to pick off America's enemies one by one-and no one seems the wiser. Can Holly trail her quarry and beat him at his own game? Can she get close enough to find him, and still keep her cover? A chance meeting between Holly and Fay kick-starts a high-speed chase through the canyons of midtown Manhattan, the Metropolitan Opera house, Central Park, and the United Nations Plaza, all to prevent another assassination before Fay disappears again-maybe this time for good.

With the signature mix of slick repartee and rapid-fire action that has won Stuart Woods many fans over the years, Iron Orchid confirms just why he is a master of the popular crime novel.