(1998) Reread this one without realizing that I had over 18 years ago. A quick read, with the resolution at the end a little too pat and without problems. A complicated plan of taking over an entire ?city? came off a little too flawless, with only the main villain escaping, but later captured. Kirkus: awyer/cop/shamus/adventurer Stone Barrington chronicler Woods gives his swaggering hero and any Stone-weary readers a welcome break¥though the result is a so-so suspenser with a distaff paragon just as deadly and insubstantial as the male. What can you do with a female hero that you can't do with a man? She can get threatened and bullied by troglodyte guys; she can have a discreet romance that reminds you how vulnerable she is; she can get assaulted by a rapist; she can sue for sexual harassment. Woods obligingly works in every one of these episodes, starting with the lawsuit, which is doomed to failure because Major Holly Barker's harasser, a West Point grad, is in so tight with the Army brass that she jumps at the chance to resign her commission and take a job as Deputy Chief under her dad's old pal Chet Marley, of Florida's Orchid Beach. Before she can even introduce herself to the other (male) officers, though, the Chief is gunned down, presumably by the same person or persons who grabbed his shotgun, drove out to the house of his best friend, dog trainer Hank Doherty, and settled his hash too. The only survivor is Hank's wonder dog Daisy (imagine Lassie able to fetch Timmy a Heineken), a real bitch Holly is proud to take as a role model. And she'll need the toughest model she can get, because Woods, uncomfortable with the constraints of the whodunit formula, soon directs Holly's attention to outsized enemies both without (a gated community on the fringes of Orchid Beach that's exclusive, private, and armed to the teeth) and within (dark hints of a mole within Holly's department). Before many suns have set on Holly and her true love, and all those other girls'-only plot devices have kicked in, she'll be joining the FBI in a full-scale assault on an upscale Waco that leaves no Stone untopped. Middling for Woods's checkered output: not as glamorously nasty as L.A. Times (1993) or as fleet as Dead in the Water (1997), but not as dopey as this year's Swimming to Catalina either (p. 439).Pub Date: Nov. 15, 1998ISBN: 0-06-019181-3Page Count: 320Publisher: HarperCollinsReview Posted Online: May 20, 2010Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998

Good quick read about a new city police chief that discovers a subdivision operated like a military compound that harbors drug dealers & gun smugglers. ?Daisy? the doberman a major character.

First edition signed as new

Entertaining book. Need to get the next one. ( )

Story moves along at a good pace with little wasted action. Holly seemed way more capable of running the office than I would have expected. Nice how the dog, Daisy, added to the story to the point I was thinking where is she when I thought there was going to be action. Good for her father, Ham, and his involvements. Surprised that there was so much with FBI in first book in the series and that Holly's love interest with Jackson the lawyer got so involved. The attack on Palmetto Gardens was surprisingly easier than I thought and figured it would a part in future stories. ( )