Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Foreclosure by Jacqueline D'Acre. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
Foreclosure by Jacqueline D'Acre
A Bryn Wiley Mystery
Stargazer Press (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-897424-00-0 (1897424000)
ISBN-13: 978-1-897424-00-1 (9781897424001)
Publication Date: April 2008
List Price: $20.00
Synopsis (from the publisher): What do murder, horses and Lila's Creole Diner have in common?
Head down to St. Tremaine Parish, near New Orleans, and find out! Meet Bryn Wiley, a mild equine writer, who discovers a show horse breeder facing financial ruin, foreclosure and far worse! Then the sheriff fingers a champion stallion as a killer...but Bryn believes otherwise! Wherever there are horses, there is money, deception and powerful secrets.
Can Bryn unmask the real murderer before the stallion gets a lethal injection? In the sultry Lousiana heat she roams New Orleans seeking a slayer--in a desperate race to save the stallion! The story drips with sweat, Spanish moss, a voodoo queen, blooded horses and quirky Deep South characters.
Review: With New Orleans as its backdrop, Jacqueline D'Acre introduces equine writer Bryn Wiley in Foreclosure, an explosive example of the differences in people who own and raise show horses, first for the love of the horse and second for the money that may be made, either in shows or in the breeding of the stallion.
Bryn, the owner of a Morgan trotter, is an accredited equine writer for local papers. She also fancies herself as an amateur sleuth who gets involves in mysteries, especially where a horse is concerned. Such is the case when Marcie Goodall, owner of Once-in-a Lifetime, a beautiful stallion and winner of three championships, is found dead in the horse's stall, covered with hoof prints on her face and body. The sheriff immediately blames the stallion and has him taken into custody to have him put down. Bryn had witnessed the love Marcie had for her horse and the reciprocation from “Once.” She will not allow herself to believe that “Once” killed his owner and sets out to prove that a human killed Marcy. And she must hurry before the sheriff can have “Once” put down.
During her search for clues Bryn discovers the dead woman was about to lose her horse farm including her prized champion stallion. But she also encounters spousal abuse by the mortgage holder, his gambling with heavy losses, and legal deceits. When Bryn isn’t stretching the law, she works quite well with the sheriff and his deputy to find the real killer.
Foreclosure has a good story with interesting characters. But one "character" is particularly unusual and rather annoying: Bryn's gut feeling which she refers to as a second brain and which speaks to her with an Australian accent. The second brain aside, Foreclosure reads easily, has an unexpected plot twist, and is a pleasant way of spending an afternoon with a mystery to solve.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Foreclosure and to Stargazer Press for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
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