Tami Hoag
Dark Horse
Bantam/$25
I'm not a horse fan, per se. I enjoy their beauty, respect their strength and admire their skills and usefulness, but I've never been inclined to jump on a half-ton spirited steed and ride off into the sunset.
These facts speak loud and clear to Tami Hoag's ability not only to engross me in her latest novel, Dark Horse, but leave me with a working knowledge of a culture I previously had no interest in: that of the competitive equestrian.
An avid competitive equestrian herself (most recently the sport of dressage, a sort of ballet for horses, if you will), Hoag has set her latest New York Times bestseller (six weeks and counting) in the wealthy and seedy world of the Palm Beach horsey set. It's to this world that ex-undercover sheriff's detective Elena Estes has retreated after a sting gone bad. When not grooming a friend's horses, Estes wallows in guilt, ritualistically counting her stash of painkillers each night, struggling to find a reason not to toss back a handful.
Enter Molly, a 12-year-old reason who "hires" Estes to find her 18-year-old sister, Erin, last seen at the horse show grounds, where she works for a shady trainer. Neither Molly's parents nor the police seem interested in Erin's disappearance, and although she'd clearly prefer to continue her seclusion, Estes embarks on a hunt for the missing girl, thereby beginning her journey to self-forgiveness and healing.
Like all good mysteries, Dark Horse has several suspects you'll love to hate. And while your inner-amateur sleuth knows not all of them can be guilty, your inner-justice watchdog will surely want them to be. The control-freak stepfather, the neglectful mother, the slippery horse trainer and his calculating assistant — all deliciously devious and just begging to get what they deserve.
Dark Horse is swift, tricky and contemporary, suffering from few of the cliches that eventually beset the works of other authors who've cranked out a dozen or so titles. South Florida readers will also get a little tickle from Hoag's intimate references to that half of the state's inhabitants, both the commoners and the high society.
If the response to this tight little page-turner is as warm as I suspect it will be, the fast-recovering, smart-ass heroine of Dark Horse could become one of current fiction's more entertaining recurring characters, should Hoag decide to keep her around.
—Kelli K
This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2002.