Dark Horse

Dark Horse by Shoemaker, Bill. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780449905975.

World-famous jockey-turned-mystery writer Bill Shoemaker is back in the winners circle with his newest racing mystery. In Dark Horse, Shoemaker thrusts his amateur sleuth, Coley Killebrew, into the toughest, tensest case of his career--a case that begins and ends with the Triple Crown, the most famous and lucrative trio of races in the thoroughbred business. At the behest of his gorgeous fiancée Lea Starbuck, Coley jets off to observe the season get underway at the Kentucky Derby. But hes barely on the ground before he learns that prize race horses confiscated in drug busts are being undervalued and sold at auction. And no less a personage than Jim Carmody, a ruthless billionaire and arch-conservative powermonger, is involved. Carmody blows his stack when his filly, For Cupids Sake, loses the Derby. But after an upset at the Preakness, Coley suspects that Carmodys passion for racing is a cover for a far deeper game--a game whose other players include the Drug Enforcement Administration, vicious South American drug lords, and the CIA. As For Cupids Sake streaks across the finish line at Belmont, the whole unbelievable truth comes out--but even a last minute victory may not be enough to recoup Carmodys investment, or save Lea Starbucks life. . . . In Dark Horse, Bill Shoemaker sets an ingenious timebomb of a plot ticking against the glamorous, dangerous world of thoroughbred racing. The behind-the-scenes deal-cutting, the jockeys and trainers, the beautiful women, the priceless horses, the desperation to finish first at any price, and, of course, the coveted prize of the Triple Crown--its all here, re-created with the flair and mastery of a true insider.