Cut Throat

by Lyndon Stacey

Overview

Jealousy and greed form a deadly alliance in the highly charged world of international showjumping.

Ross Wakelin, a talented American rider with a chequered past, has come to England hoping for a fresh start. But soon after he arrives at Oakley Manor yard he learns that all is not as it seems. Bellboy, a winner of the Hickstead Derby, was recently found in his stable with a cut throat - his violent death marked the beginning of a cruel vendetta against one of the owners at the yard.

Unwittingly, Ross is drawn into a deadly spiral of threatening events and finds himself at the heart of the terrifying campaign. Now, with more than just his career at stake, he must uncover the secrets of Oakley Manor. But as he begins to close in on the truth, he finds that someone is prepared to go to any lengths to destroy him, and knows exactly where to strike...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781409069171
Publisher:	Random House
Publication date:	06/30/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	592
File size:	445 KB

About the Author

Lyndon Stacey is an animal portrait artist by trade and has a love of Western style horse riding. She lives on the outskirts of the New Forest. Cut Throat is her first novel.

Editorial Reviews

Splendidly exciting… moves at a cracking pace… A sparkling debut.

EBOOK COMMENTARY

Splendidly exciting… moves at a cracking pace… A sparkling debut.

Publishing News

This entertaining, moderately suspenseful thriller about the British horsey set marks Stacey's promising-if uneven-debut. Beset by nightmares of the riding accident that sent him crashing into a viewing stand full of people, crippling a young girl, 27-year-old American rider Ross Wakelin is devoting most of his time to getting drunk when Lindsey Cresswell, a young British colleague, offers him a chance to return to the riding arena in the U.K. Her uncle, Colonel Preston, has a show-jumping yard in Wiltshire and needs an immediate replacement rider. Ross agrees, but he has scarcely gotten out of the car at Oakley Manor when he is greeted with the news that one of the horses is dying, the apparent victim of poisoning, the second such incident at Oakley Manor. Ross finds the overseer, former jockey Bill Scott, less than welcoming; he is also thwarted at every turn by a surly stable employee and a mean-spirited celebrity journalist-cum-ring announcer, -the father of the young horseman he has replaced-who loses no opportunity to discredit him. Soon the foul play spreads beyond the stables: Ross is accosted on a lonely road and forced into a state of drunkenness by mysterious assailants. If Ross doesn't find out who's behind it, this could be the end of his career. His anguish is made all the worse by his secret love for Lindsey, who is about to marry a rich heir. The plot turns are patently contrived, and some passages are overwritten. Still, this fast-paced first effort is absorbing, enlivened by witty dialogue and vivid descriptions of the show-jumping circuit. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Not quite Dick Francis, though this horsy English debut clears its fences neatly.

Discredited-in effect blacklisted-after a costly, headline-grabbing spill (not his fault), American show-jumping rider Ross Wakelin goes on an all-out bender. Just one, but he's uncomfortably aware that it could have been prelude to a destructive series if not for the timely intervention of loyal Lindsay Cresswell. She's just a friend, Ross keeps telling himself, since it's understood between the two that her heart is irrevocably committed elsewhere. Romance aside, however, Lindsay represents redemption, presenting Ross with an unexpected and most welcome job offer, one that takes him to England and the chance at a longed-for fresh start. Lindsay's uncle, Colonel John Preston, owns Oakley Manor in Wiltshire, a small show-jumping yard suddenly in the market for an experienced rider. Despite initial misgivings, the colonel allows himself to be persuaded by his niece's special pleading, and Ross is hired. He likes the colonel and loves the horses, but there are minuses that become oppressively apparent. To begin with, there's Leo Jackson, the sullen, snarly groom whose disenchantment with Ross is as instant as it is inexplicable. Even more unsettling is the feeling Ross can't shake that Leo is merely the vanguard of other baleful forces aimed at Oakley Manor. And he's right. Blackmail, character assassination, threats, treachery, and attempted murder soon serve to darken his life, as if the competitiveness, the physical and emotional wear and tear, the unavoidable ups and downs of professional show-jumping weren't tribulation enough. Still, to balance the evil that's inherent in the loathsome Leo, there'slovely Lindsay, whose irrevocable commitment, it turns out, may have been overstated.

First-novel shakiness is plainly evident, but a sustaining amiability pervades all, and the horse stuff is wonderful.

Kirkus Reviews

Entertaining…fast-paced…enlivened by witty dialogue and vivid descriptions.” —Publishers Weekly

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