An informative, entertaining thriller that finishes just out of the money.
The FBI recruits horse trainer Chance Holden to help track down an elite, mysterious assassin.
Chance Holden is going about the business of training and racing horses when two men ask him to advise them on how to buy a race horse so they can break into the horse-racing game. The men turn out to be FBI agents Robert Goodman and William St. Germaine, who are after a slick, world-class assassin who never makes a mistake and may be connected to horse racing. Holden believes the FBI is chasing its tail and that his peers will see him as a turncoat when his involvement is eventually revealed, but he reluctantly agrees to help the agents. Initially, the story revolves around the subculture of horse racing, its nuances and the colorful characters that inhabit it. Porter dishes on the inner workings and gritty realities of horse racing, which largely fascinates but occasionally drags due to an overabundance of detail. The action advances from a walk to a trot when Holden overhears a group of trainers reveal key information about someone involved with the track. As the FBI closes in on the assassin, the action hits a gallop; the assassin and his cohort in crime elude capture, putting Holden at risk because his role as informant has been discovered. As the final stretch approaches, the story falters and loses ground; bad guys come out of the woodwork, making it impossible to keep track of what’s going on. The author tries to tie up too many loose ends too quickly, which confuses the action. Despite the poor finish, Porter’s prose mostly prances at a solid pace. The tension escalates nicely, and the characters’ dialogue rings true, avoiding any sense of artificiality.
An informative, entertaining thriller that finishes just out of the money.Pub Date: June 12, 2011
ISBN: 978-1461032250
Page Count: 210
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A murder is committed in a stalled transcontinental train in the Balkans, and every passenger has a watertight alibi. But Hercule Poirot finds a way.
**Note: This classic Agatha Christie mystery was originally published in England as Murder on the Orient Express, but in the United States as Murder in the Calais Coach. Kirkus reviewed the book in 1934 under the original US title, but we changed the title in our database to the now recognizable title Murder on the Orient Express. This is the only name now known for the book. The reason the US publisher, Dodd Mead, did not use the UK title in 1934 was to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel, Orient Express.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1934
ISBN: 978-0062073495
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1934
The parts with Nero Wolfe, the only character Goldsborough brings to life, are almost worth waiting for.
In Archie Goodwin's 15th adventure since the death of his creator, Rex Stout, his gossipy Aunt Edna Wainwright lures him from 34th Street to his carefully unnamed hometown in Ohio to investigate the death of a well-hated bank president.
Tom Blankenship, the local police chief, thinks there’s no case since Logan Mulgrew shot himself. But Archie’s mother, Marjorie Goodwin, and Aunt Edna know lots of people with reason to have killed him. Mulgrew drove rival banker Charles Purcell out of business, forcing Purcell to get work as an auto mechanic, and foreclosed on dairy farmer Harold Mapes’ spread. Lester Newman is convinced that Mulgrew murdered his ailing wife, Lester’s sister, so that he could romance her nurse, Carrie Yeager. And Donna Newman, Lester’s granddaughter, might have had an eye on her great-uncle’s substantial estate. Nor is Archie limited to mulling over his relatives’ gossip, for Trumpet reporter Verna Kay Padgett, whose apartment window was shot out the night her column raised questions about the alleged suicide, is perfectly willing to publish a floridly actionable summary of the leading suspects that delights her editor, shocks Archie, and infuriates everyone else. The one person missing is Archie’s boss, Nero Wolfe (Death of an Art Collector, 2019, etc.), and fans will breathe a sigh of relief when he appears at Marjorie’s door, debriefs Archie, notices a telltale clue, prepares dinner for everyone, sleeps on his discovery, and arranges a meeting of all parties in Marjorie’s living room in which he names the killer.
The parts with Nero Wolfe, the only character Goldsborough brings to life, are almost worth waiting for.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5040-5988-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
