FROM OUR EDITORS

For Elena Estes, risk taking was part of being a cop. But once, she pushed the boundaries too far, and, as a consequence, a fellow cop lost his life, and Elena lost her job in the narcotics division of the Miami P.D. Now, laying low in a remote Florida county, she can't resist the temptation to get back in the game. But when the opportunity comes, she discovers that she has been dragged back into a world where playboys and gamblers play for very high stakes....

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"A lifetime ago, undercover sheriff's detective Elena Estes worked the mean streets and back alleys, living by her wits and playing the long odds until she took one risk too many. Now Estes lives on the ragged edge of lost hope and self-hatred, hiding from the past and believing she doesn't deserve to have a future. But the past is about to come back with a vengeance, and the future is about to become a race between life and death." "A young woman is missing and her twelve-year-old stepsister comes to Estes for help. No one but serious, studious Molly Seabright seems concerned about what's happened to her troubled older sister. But Molly is convinced Erin is in danger. Estes has no P.I. license, no interest in a new career, and no desire to break her self-imposed exile. But the more she learns about the people Erin Seabright was involved with, the more her long-dormant cop instincts come back to life." "One trip to the show grounds where Erin worked as a groom, and Estes is quickly pulled to the dark side of a glamorous sport. Behind the glittering, ultrarich facade is an ultraruthless world of drugs, payoffs, and dirty deals. A world of dissolute playboys and crooked horse-dealers, of royalty and rabble, of rivals and enemies. An obscenely wealthy world where anything can be had for a price - including a life." And in that world stalks a killer who will lead Estes down a dark, twisted trail of decadence and deceit, mayhem and murder - from the gilded life of Palm Beach to the darkest corners of the Florida swamps, to a final showdown that could cost her everything. A race against time and evil. A race in which Estes is the dark horse...and no one is betting on her to win.

SYNOPSIS

In her latest thriller, New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag takes readers on a suspense-filled ride of shocks and twists leading to an explosive finish. It is the story of an ex-cop, a missing girl, and a killer locked in a race where there can be only one winner--and the losers die trying.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

The professional horse world, as seen through Hoag's eyes, is full of intrigue, glitter and skullduggery. Elena Estes is a former cop whose bravado on the force resulted in a colleague's death; it also cost her her job and her self-esteem, not to mention the psychological and physical fallout from nearly being shot. She's been keeping a low profile at a friend's Florida ranch, but her world is disrupted when 12-year-old Molly Seabright, wise beyond her years, attempts to hire Elena to find her older sister, Erin, who has been missing for two days. As Elena digs deeper into Erin's disappearance, the dark side of the horse-show set is revealed. Hoag (Night Sins; Dust to Dust), herself an experienced equestrian, shows off her dressage-to-showing knowledge of the sport as she weaves behind-the-scenes tidbits about the training, competitions, horse brokers and grooms into a plot that gallops along. Though she is a master of suspense, the story falters when a major secret about the kidnapping is exposed. There are too many bad guys who may be in on the scheme, and readers will feel cheated by the improbable 11th-hour revelation. It's too bad Hoag felt the need to undercut her plot with schemes and counterschemes, since she finds plenty of tension in the equestrian world she examines here and doesn't need the contrivance. Nonetheless, she has enough skill and drawing power to propel this, her 10th book, onto bestseller lists. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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