Dark Horse (A Coley Killbrew Mystery)

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World-famous jockey-turned-mystery writer Bill Shoemaker is back in the winner's 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 fiancee Lea Starbuck, Coley jets off to observe the season get underway at the Kentucky Derby. But he's 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 Cupid's Sake, loses the Derby. But after an upset at the Preakness, Coley suspects that Carmody's 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 Cupid's 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 Carmody's investment, or save Lea Starbuck's 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--it's all here, re-created with the flair and mastery of a true insider.