From Publishers Weekly
Woods (Chiefs; Imperfect Strangers) writes a no-frills thriller that moves right along and carries the reader with it. There's no atmosphere to speak of, the psychology is elementary, the characters strictly from stock; but as a creator of a taut narrative that explodes with legitimate surprises, he won't let you down. Chuck Chandler is a middle-aged tennis pro with a yen for the ladies. Once, at Wimbledon many years ago, he choked at the vital moment and lost what could have been a career-making match. Now, living on his boat, he is the new coach at a club on Key West?and into his life comes Clare Carras, a gorgeous woman married to a mysterious, wealthy husband apparently unconcerned about her wandering eye. In no time, she and Chuck are between the sheets, but when husband Harry drowns in a highly suspicious diving accident, she makes sure it is Chuck who is the immediate suspect. Only a new member of the Key West force, a former New York cop called Tommy Sculley, believes Chuck didn't do it, but his skeptical chief demands a fast arrest. There are several killings, a tense boat chase and a series of sudden switches before a denouement in which someone is unmasked as the utterly duplicitous black widow who has already been revealed to the reader. There's some awkwardness about how this revelation is accomplished, but it doesn't seriously detract from a fast, lively read. 100,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; HarperAudio; author tour. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Woods (Heat, LJ 6/15/94) is a master of his writing craft: Choke is a delightfully well-written, highly readable thriller. Chuck Chandler is your typical womanizing tennis pro whom readers will be prepared to hate. Woods instead makes him very human and very likable. Chuck teaches tennis at an exclusive club in Key West and meets his "match" in gorgeous Claire Carras and her much older, wealthy husband, Harry. Chuck boats, wines, and dines with the Carrases, beds Claire, then finds himself accused of Harry's apparent murder. All this trouble and he's just found the true love of his life in cute, perky Meg. Enter Tommy Sculley, formerly with the New York Police Department, now augmenting his pension working for the Key West police. Tommy is street-wise and intelligent, and he won't quit until he finds the truth. Readers will not be able to put this genre gem down and will probably lend it to several neighbors before returning it. Buy this? Absolutely.--Alice DiNizo, Raritan P.L., N.J.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


New York Times Book Review
"Woods knows how to keep the narrative pace in overdrive...An entertaining page-turner."


Chicago Tribune
"Woods is a no-nonsense, slam-bang storyteller."


Boston Globe
"A real page-turner with surprises along the way."


Book Description
Chuck Chandler has choked on more than one occasion--first as a pro tennis player at Wimbledon, then as a womanizing coach at posh tennis clubs around the country. Now at Key Westís Old Racquet Club, Chuck gets involved with the wrong married woman-the enticing Clare Carras, married to an enigmatic older man--and soon he is in way over his head. Enter Tommy Sculley, a retired New York homicide detective who has just joined the Key West force, and his young green partner, Daryl Haynes, who turns out to be smarter than he looks. Up to their necks in an investigation of a bizarre apparent homicide, the two detectives barely keep afloat in murky waters. Events take them from the Florida Keys to Los Angeles and back, as a plot emerges that involves not only the dangerous Clare, but a furious West Coast mob boss determined to get back what is his at any cost.


From the Publisher
Chuck Chandler arrives in Key West, as many people do, at the end of his rope. He has, in turn, blown a career as a top tour tennis professional and a series of teaching jobs at plush clubs, usually because he has been unable to keep his hands off his female students. At Key West's Olde Island Racquet Club, he yields to temptation once again, this time for the beautiful Clare Carras, who is married to an enigmatic older man with no apparent past and who turns out to be a great deal more than the tennis pro can handle. Suddenly, the easy-going Chandler is in over his head, suspected of murder and on the verge of losing not only his modest career and all his possessions, but his freedom as well. Enter Tommy Sculley, a former New York Police department homicide detective, augmenting his pension with a job on the Key West force, and his neophyte partner, Daryl Hanes, who may be smarter than he looks. The two detectives find themselves barely afloat in a shark-infested investigation that stretches from the Florida Keys to Los Angeles and back, involving not only the treacherous Clare, but a furious West Coast mob boss who is determined to get back something that belongs to him and doesn't care who he has to kill to do it. With Choke, Stuart Woods, bestselling author of Imperfect Strangers and Heat, has created a story that fascinates, with all the twists, shocks and gritty characters that have made his novels international hits.


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 Skipper was 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

Chuck Chandler has choked on more than one occasion--first as a pro tennis player at Wimbledon, then as a womanizing coach at posh tennis clubs around the country. Now at Key West's Old Island Racquet Club, Chuck gets involved with the wrong married woman--the enticing Clare Carras, married to an enigmatic older man--and soon he is in way over his head. Simultaneous release with Wood's latest hardcover, Dirt.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Chuck Chandler arrives in Key West, as many people do, at the end of his rope. He has, in turn, blown a career as a top tour tennis professional and a series of teaching jobs at plush clubs, usually because he has been unable to keep his hands off his female students. At Key West's Olde Island Racquet Club, he yields to temptation once again, this time for the beautiful Clare Carras, who is married to an enigmatic older man with no apparent past and who turns out to be a great deal more than the tennis pro can handle. Suddenly, the easygoing Chuck is in over his head, suspected of murder and on the verge of losing not only his modest career and all his possessions but his freedom as well.

FROM THE CRITICS

Chicago Tribune

Woods is a no-nonsense, slam-bang storyteller.

Boston Globe

A real page-turner with surprises along the way.

New York Times Book Review

Woods knows how to keep the narrative pace in overdrive...An entertaining page-turner.

Chicago Tribune