Holly Barker Series Books in Order

The Holly Barker Series is a crime thriller and espionage franchise written by Stuart Woods, featuring a protagonist who crosses over with his more famous Stone Barrington universe. Holly Barker is a former U.S. Army officer and small-town police chief in Orchid Beach, Florida, who is recruited by the CIA and rises steadily through the intelligence community across the series. Holly is competent, direct, and thoroughly capable of handling both the physical and intellectual demands of covert work — a rare female protagonist in the action-thriller genre who is written as a genuine peer to her male counterparts rather than as an exception to be marvelled at.

Woods brings his characteristic breezy pacing and glamorous settings to the Holly Barker books, which move between small-town Florida, Washington D.C., and various international locations as Holly's career advances. The series is somewhat lighter in tone than dedicated espionage fiction, sitting closer to the crime thriller end of the spectrum, and the action is fast and enjoyable rather than deeply realistic. Holly's romantic relationship with Stone Barrington, which develops across both series, will be of particular interest to readers who follow the Barrington books.

Comprising 9 novels published from 1998 to 2017, the Holly Barker series works well as both a standalone franchise and as a complement to the Stone Barrington universe. New readers can start with Orchid Beach (1998) without any prior knowledge of Stone Barrington, though the crossover moments reward readers familiar with both series.