From Publishers Weekly
A senate election, a controversial murder trial and a string of vigilante killings are compelling plot elements woven into this "tautly drawn suspense novel." PW noted that although the ingenuity runs out in the final chapters, "Woods's headlong storytelling style is stoked with enough sex and violence to ignite a TV miniseries." Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
When Georgia Senator Ben Carr has a stroke, his chief of staff, Will Lee, decides to run for Carr's seat. Concurrently Lee has been appointed public defender for a white man accused of murdering a young black woman--a case full of explosive racial tension. The election campaign is a nasty one involving a militaristic right-wing group, a TV evangelist with a mission, and a power-hungry governor. The various plot lines, though a little too contrived, move the story at a smart pace. A consummate storyteller, Woods ( Under the Lake , LJ 6/1/87) demonstrates his narrative ability by intertwining contemporary southern politics and the murder trial into a most satisfying tale.- Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., OhioCopyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Will Lee is running for the U.S. Senate. His life is an open book--all but the romantic part. The woman in his life is a CIA operative, so secrecy is imperative. His opponents are part of a network of right-wing conservatives, white supremacists, and nutcases. Barrett Whitener's performance makes this as engrossing and believable a tale as it can be, although certain plot elements stretch credibility. Hate crimes, racism, and politics allow Whitener to create an assortment of intriguing characters. His energy and expertise take us through high-speed car chases, dangerous stakeouts, and a thrilling election campaign. With its neatly tied-up ends, Stuart Woods knows how to spin a yarn to capture even the most blasé listener, and Whitener makes it happen. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


Book Description
Will Lee has returned to his roots to kick off his campaign for the Senate. A prominent lawyer, he has come back to his hometown of Delano, Georgia, to plan his strategies, and to argue an explosively controversial case that could seriously damage his fledgling political career. For Delano is a town with a dark secret -- a smoldering hotbed of racial hatred and moral outrage, held in the thrall of a sinister group called The Elect. Its violent, evil forces will stop at nothing to keep the candidate out of office. But Will Lee isn't about to back down, even though it may cost him his career -- and his life.


About the Author
Stuart Woods was born in Manchester, Georgia, a small town in the American South.He was educated in the local schools and at the University of Georgia, where he graduated with a BA degree in 1959.He served in the United States Air Force, in which he says he "...flew a truck," as an enlisted man during the Berlin Wall crisis of 1961-62. He devoted his early adult years to a career in advertising , as an award-winning writer for agencies in New York and London.It was while living in London in 1973 that he decided to pursue an ambition held since childhood, to write fiction.he moved to a flat in the stable yard of a castle in south County Galway, Ireland, and while working two days a week for a Dublin ad agency to support himself, began work on a novel.Shortly after beginning, he discovered sailing and , as he puts it, "Everything went to hell."The novel was put temporarily aside while he spent all his time, "...racing an eleven foot plywood dinghy against small children, losing regularly." In the autumn of 1974, a friend invited him to help ferry a small yacht up the west coast of Ireland, and the bug bit even harder.Shortly thereafter, his grandfather died, leaving him "...just enough money to get into debt for a boat," and he immediately decided to go to the 1976 Observer Single-handed Transatlantic Race (OSTAR).He moved to a gamekeeper's cottage on a river above Cork Harbour and had a boat built at a nearby boatyard.He studied navigation and sailed on other people's boats every chance he got, then, after completing a 1300-mile qualifying voyage from the Azores to Ireland, he persuaded the Race Committee to accept him as an Irish entry. He completed the race in good form, taking forty-five days, and in 1977 his memoir of the Irish period, Blue Water, Green Skipperwas published in London and New York.While sporadically working on the novel, he completed another book, A Romantic's Guide to the Country Inns of Britain and Ireland,published in 1979.Chiefs, Woods' long-awaited novel, was published in 1981 to wide critical and popular acclaim, garnering excellent reviews and winning the Edgar Allan Poe Award.Chiefs was filmed for television as a six-hour drama starring Charlton Heston.Following his success with that novel, Woods published a string of fiction that established him as one of the most popular writers in the world.Orchid Beach is Stuart Woods' eighteenth novel.His previous books, Run Before the Wind (1983), Deep Lie (1986), Under the Lake (1987), White Cargo (1988), Grass Roots (1989), Palindrome and New York Dead (1989), Santa Fe Rules (1991), L.A. Times (1992), Dead Eyes (1993), Heat (1994), Imperfect Strangers and Choke (1995), Dirt (1996),Dead in the Water (1997) and Swimming to Catalina(1998) have been translated into Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Japanese, and Hebrew and there are millions of copies of his books in print around the world. Several of Stuart Woods' novels have been optioned for feature films and television movies. Stuart Woods lives on the the Treasure Coast of Florida and Litchfield County, Connectict.He still flies his own plane, and sails.

ANNOTATION

Woods introduces Will Lee, the brilliant and loyal chief aide to Washington's most influential senator. When the senator succumbs to a stroke, he asks Lee to run for office, and Lee is faced with scandal, rivals, and a white supremacist organization that would rather see him dead than in office.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

From the author of White Cargo comes this riveting contemporary crime thriller centered on a sensational murder trial, a Senate campaign, and a virulent white supremacist group.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Three compelling plot lines are woven into a tautly drawn suspense novel by the author of Chiefs ; not a whodunit or a howdunit, but a how-does-it-all-connect. After years as chief of staff for a venerable Georgia senator, Will Lee decides to run for the seat himself when a stroke cripples his mentor. Standing in his way are an ambitious governor in the Democratic primary and, possibly, a far-right fundamentalist in the general election. In addition, Will must interrupt his campaign to serve as the defense lawyer in a controversial race-murder trial, while elsewhere, a dedicated ex-cop pursues the head of a Klan-like vigilante group that's been carrying out gangland-style killings. Woods builds these plots to reach their climaxes--an election, a verdict and a shoot-out--simultaneously, and links the stories with an ingenuity that runs out of steam only in the final few chapters. Nonetheless, his headlong storytelling style is stoked with enough sex and violence to ignite a TV miniseries. Major ad/promo; author tour. (Aug.)

Library Journal

When Georgia Senator Ben Carr has a stroke, his chief of staff, Will Lee, decides to run for Carr's seat. Concurrently Lee has been appointed public defender for a white man accused of murdering a young black woman--a case full of explosive racial tension. The election campaign is a nasty one involving a militaristic right-wing group, a TV evangelist with a mission, and a power-hungry governor. The various plot lines, though a little too contrived, move the story at a smart pace. A consummate storyteller, Woods ( Under the Lake , LJ 6/1/87) demonstrates his narrative ability by intertwining contemporary southern politics and the murder trial into a most satisfying tale.-- Jo Ann Vicarel, Cleveland Heights-University Heights P.L., Ohio

AudioFile