Dark Horse
by Tami Hoag
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tami HoagEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-06-01
ISBN: 0553583573
Number of pages: 592
Publisher: Bantam
Product features:
- Tami Hoag
- Dark Horse
- ex-cop
- Palm Beach horse set
- Elena Estes
Book Reviews of Dark Horse
Book Review: Not a cookie cutter book written to a formula.
Summary: 5 Stars
I absolutely loved this book. I also think this is one of Tami Hoag's best. It is multi-layered. Yes, there are a lot of characters, and yes, many of these characters are guilty of something. I liked this because it made the story more complex than a standard thriller. It is longer than some of the cookie cutter books churned out by other authors, but I see this as one of its strengths. The peripheral characters I thought were well written and necessary to drive the plot.
If you like a simple cast of characters and a straight forward story, this book is not for you. If you skim it, you miss the point. The reader needs to concentrate to pick up the underlying threads, because in the end they tie all the individual plots up. Not all plots intersect neatly, which is much more true to life than some books.
The main character is Elena Estes. She is not your typical heroine. She is not that easy to like, especially for the first half of the book. She has a troubled past and her own demons, which during the course of the book, she begins to overcome. I liked that she wasn't some gorgeous, quirky heroine as so many other thriller writers would have written her. She is damaged both physically and emotionally, but again over the couple of weeks in which the book is set, she learns to face and overcome those demons.
Without a doubt one of the best characters is the 12 year old Molly Seabright. Elena Estes and James Landry were also people I would like to see in another Hoag novel, along with Molly. I really liked the interaction between Molly and Estes, and mostespecially between Landry and Estes. It moved from animosity and mistrust, to respect, trust and I think quite a lot more, but much was left to the reader to interpret. What wasn't written, but often implied was just as strong.
This is a very intelligent book, not just because it gives an insight to a world Hoag obviously knows very well, but because of the range and complexity of the characters and mix of storylines. I definitely did not find the book too long as some reviewers have stated. I liked the background on the horses, I liked getting under the skin of the family and seeing that all that glitters is not gold. I liked Molly learning to trust someone - Elena Estes and through that Elena learning to like herself again.
I really wish this is a sequel to this book with Elena Estes and James Landry.
This is a book I will think about for a long time and I am really pleased I bought it. It is definitely worth the cover price, even in hardback, and there are very few books about which I say that.
Summary of Dark Horse
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.In a trailer in a Florida swamp, time is running out for eighteen year-old Erin Seabright. A pawn in a kidnapper's terrifying game for a ransom no one can pay, her last hope is a washed-up ex-cop who has already lost it all-not once, but twice.
The wealthy world of the Palm Beach horse set seems a long way from a cop's world in the narcotics division. A lifetime ago, undercover sheriff's detective Elena Estes worked the mean streets and BackTop 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, ultra-rich facade is an ultra-ruthless 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 show-down 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.
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