The Orchid Keeper: A Sean O'Brien Novel

Another great read by Lowe. Spoiler alert.This one starts with Joe Thaxton who makes his living with a fishing boat. He takes folks out in the ocean to fish. Right now Joe has his drone up and he's looking at the river. The river which has a huge glob of green coming his way. Pollution Joe thinks comes from the sugar cane fields. Joe is also a botanist and he thinks the Cane industry is destroying Florida. Right now Joe's wife and daughter come down to the dock to get Joe for lunch. Joe's daughter is affected by the pollution that's right at their dock. Joe decides he has to do something about it and that something is to run for State Senator.Johnny Nelson is a veteran who was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has a wife and child. Right now he has a cast net and is beside the river looking to catch fish. He cuts his leg on something but thinks nothing of it. This cut will kill him.Chester Miller is eighty-two years old and is an expert on orchids. He's also a botanist and has been growing orchids to return to the everglades in Florida. His grand daughter Callie is off for the Summer from college and spends as much time as she can with him.Sean O'Brien is on his was to Chester's to buy orchids for Wynona. Sean is 6'3" tall and weighs in at over two hundred pounds. He's also and ex Delta Force team leader and ex Miami-Dade homicide detective. When his wife Sherri died from cancer he quite his job and moved to a run down cabin on the River. He also has a boat, The Jupiter, tied up at Ponce Marina. Another boat, the Dragonfly, a sailing craft is one that was given to him. He and Wynona had a grand time sailing it so Sean has decided to keep it.Joe Thraxton has been doing well in the polls for his Senators position. He's also attracted the wrong kind of people. People who have tried to warn him off his anti Sugar industry express train. Joe got Sean's name from a friend and contacts him. He wants Sean to commit to a body guard assignment. That's something Sean will not do. He's not a body guard. He's a PI on occasion. He tells Joe what he can do but neither Joe nor his campaign can afford to hire guards. Sean will regret not taking the job.So begins one damned fine read.This one has Sean, Wynona, Dave, Nick, the tracker Billy, a surprise that Wynona has for Sean, the men who kill Joe and Chester, a cold blooded killer named Fazio, three dead police officers one of whom is an old buddy of Sean's, a wounded Wynona, a Sean on the vengeance trail, a Billy who finally shows up to help and Sean O'Brien doing what he does best, protect those he loves, take out the bad guys, survive and stay alive.Five Stars. Unlike the one star hit man who left a review, I live in Central Florida and there is a lot of truth in this story about the pollution of the State.

I've read all of the Sean O'Brien books, and generally enjoyed them. This one had a fascinating plot, and good potential, but the execution leaves something to be desired.First, as a "Sean O'Brien" book, there's painfully little Sean in it until the very end. Earlier, he exists mostly to make excuses about why he can't help Joe Paxton, who's receiving death threats. Then he gets to dispense "advice" to 2 seasoned detectives who really don't need the trite words. It's not until a "personal connection" with Wynonna Osceola comes into play that he finally finds a reason to DO something. (Pretty sure that's the only reason the personal thing was written in to begin with...)As for the plot... good idea, but WAY too preachy! I don't think it's giving anything away to say that Paxton is passionate in his defense of the environment. I am too, so I have no problem with the sentiment. But this is billed as a mystery/thriller, not an environmental treatise. Speeches could have (should have) been condensed and summarized. The same holds true for the orchid sub-plot - I didn't buy this book to learn that much about plants! I found my eyes glazing over in many places, and I skimmed past large chunks of the speechifying.And then there's the writing. As in previous books, Mr. Lowe really needs to invest in a good proofreader. (A copy editor would be good too - see above about the overly verbose sections.) There were way too many typos, wrong words, and missed words in this story. I understand that self-publishing doesn't come with all of the perks of a large publishing house, but certain standards should still be met. So many glaring mistakes jumped out at me that it really pulled me out of the story - and who knows how many more examples there might have been in the overly verbose sections I skimmed over. (Mr. Lowe can feel free to contact me about proofreading future Sean O'Brien stories!)And I do hope that there are more O'Brien stories - I just want them to be the mystery/thriller stories of past novels.

If I wanted to read an enviornamental rant against the sugar industry I can do it many places for free. I have enjoyed the other Sean O'brian books and looked forward to this one but I quit it one third of the way through. There is very little plot. Just constant repetition of how the sugar industry is poisoning Florida's waterways. Ok. I got it in the first chapter. Constantly going to it over and over and over is totally boring and tiresome. I won't be buying any more of Mr. Lowe's books.

I have read every book in this series and everyone is different in so many ways, great ways. Tom Lowe loves to put his heart and soul into each book he writes. He prides himself on giving the readers a thorough, action packed, enjoyable, full bodied storyline filled with our favorite characters (including Sean's little dascund, Maxine). This book taught me so much on the wild life and expanse of the Florida water areas to the many different species of orchids. It gave me an in depth look into how fragile not only the orchids are but as well as human life. All are fragile and the strength that came from the characters was definitely well thought out and made you appreciate them all the more! I appreciate every book that Tom brings us as I know it will be an excellent read as well as a intriguing storyline. I am truly looking forward to reading the next installment in this series, The Mermaid. Enjoy! I highly recommend!

Another excellent story of Sean O'Brien and his friends. I say friends, but this is a tight knit family. I have read all of this series and enjoyed everyone! When I read, I read for enjoyment, but I also read to learn. I didn't know anything about the Everglades or orchids, I feel a little bit more knowledgeable now. Doesn't hurt to learn when you read. Then ,we have the last part of the book, Sean at his finest and best at what he does! It's time for him to be happy and content! Keep these adventures coming please!

I have read all of the Sean O'Brien novels and was looking forward to reading this one. Unfortunately i was rather disappointed as it did not match the previous books. The rush of the chase, threat rtf just want there.It was nearly a third off the way through before anything happened and it was clear where the action was going to occur and when it would happen. Sean was hardly in it and it seemed a long winded message about environmental issues in Florida . Obviously it's serious but for the main thrust of a fictional story? I don't think so.The story itself seemed rather weak.Overall was disappointed with this book.

This is a great entry in one of my all time favourite series by one of my favourite authors and I think that somehow these books just keep getting better and better. The whole gang from the Marina are in full form here with Nick, Dave and Flo all playing their usual roles and, of course, Max being the star of the show. Sean plays a bit different part than in the previous books and it is great to see Wynona and Joe Billie have such huge roles in the story although it was scary to see Wynona get shot up so severally. Personally I didn’t like to see so many of the good guys getting killed but I realize the importance of those deaths to the story and we sure got another one of Tom Lowe’s bang up rock solid endings and the bad guys sure met appropriate endings, too, via Sean’s version of justice. Now is it “Sean McGee” or “Travis O’Brien” but Sean is sure becoming more like Travis McGee with every book right up to the requisite Caribbean cruise on the “Dragonfly” with the rehabbing damsel in distress, this time Wynona! And Tom Lowe is channeling even more John D MacDonald with the environmental, climate and political corruption problems in Florida brought up to date with the present day climate crisis. Interestingly the toxic “Blue-Green Algae” problem that started this story is not unique to Florida as Lake Erie has a large toxic “Blue-Green Algae” blob and a couple of lakes in Sudbury On. Canada have been closed for the same problem.Now most of Tom Lowe’s books always have a few proofreading errors but not bad enough to detract from the reading enjoyment as was the case in the first couple of books in this series and other than a couple of missing or extra words the only real problem is in this quote from Chapter 39 - “thrilled to present an evening with gubernatorial candidate Hal Duncan and contender for state senate, Joe Duncan” which obviously should read “Joe Thaxton”. Name errors IMHO are enough to downrate a book at least 1 star. I’m anxiously awaiting Tom Lowe’s next book no matter in which series it happens to be.

I have read every one of the Sean O’Brien books twice and this is my favourite - I do realise that your books are fictional but you make it so real, you put so much knowledge into all books not just this series - I found this book so deep and soul searching it is by far the best. When I read about Sean I get the feeling that there is a part of you in his personality- the kindness, a big heart and the love that you have for your family and those around you - I agree with my friend Abigail that you are also my all time favourite author ❤️

Another great yarn from Tom Lowe. Not only full of action as we expect but also full of facinating facts about Orchids & the pollution of the Everglades.

Tom Lowe hits the mark yet again! As accurate with a pen as O’Brien is with a weapon!! Great work!