MY REVIEW
Raleigh
Harmon finds herself in a bit of a jam after solving the murder on the cruise.
Her mother is in a psych ward and she is undercover in the same city. While you
do not need to have read the first books in the Raleigh Harmon series, it helps
just a bit so you can get all the nuances.
I
quite enjoyed this novel. I did, however, get rather tied of Raleigh having
such a horrendous time with lying, always getting sick at her stomach
over a lie. Remember, she's an FBI agent, and she's undercover. Her whole life
has been a lie, especially her engagement to a man who is not even close to
being a soul mate.
Giorello
does a wonderful job with story, suspense, and the mystery. I do have a bit of
a problem with the back story, though. I completely understand the
logistics of storytelling when the author sets up a scenario for conflict, and
the backstory continues the thread between books in a series. It’s the basic soap
opera tactic. The Harmon stories do not need this tactic (or as much of it as
Giorello writes in). I’m a lover of less is better. And in this book, so much
is spelled out that you’ve already guessed from the last one. You are thinking…
“Great granny, Harmon, when are you going to wise up?”
So,
I give it 3 out of 5 stars. The story is good, at time funny, and characters
are very believable. But, it isn’t my favorite one Sibella Giorello has
written.
ABOUT THE BOOK
After the
FBI suspends her for bending its rules, Special Agent Raleigh Harmon is looking
for a chance to redeem her career and re-start her life.
Sent undercover to a thoroughbred
horse track, Raleigh takes on a double life to find out who’s fixing the races.
But when horses start dying and then her own life is threatened, Raleigh
realizes something bigger—and more sinister—is ruining Emerald Downs.
Yet she’s never felt more alone.
Her one contact with the FBI is
Special Agent Jack Stephanson, a guy who seems to jump from antagonistic to genuine
friend depending on the time of day. And she can’t turn to her family for
support. They’re off-limits while she’s undercover, and her mother isn’t
speaking to her anyway, having been confined to a mental hospital following a
psychotic breakdown. Adding insult to her isolation, Raleigh’s fiancé wants
them to begin their life together—now—precisely when she’s been ordered not to
be herself.
With just days left before the
season ends, Raleigh races to stop the killing and find out who’s behind the
track’s trouble, all the while trying to determine if Jack is friend or foe,
and whether marrying her fiancé will make things better—or worse.
Raleigh is walking through the
darkest night she’s faced, searching for a place where the stars shine bright.
