Dark Horse

Abridged
Author: Tami Hoag
Narrator: Blair Brown
Genres: Fiction
Publisher: Random House (Audio)
Date: August 2002
Length: 5 hours
Ratings:
  • Book Rating: 3.5/5
Formats:
  • CD

Overview

In her latest thriller, New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag takes readers on a suspense-filled ride of shocks and twists leading to an explosive finish. It is the story of an ex-cop, a missing girl, and a killer locked in a race where there can be only one winner--and the losers die trying.

In a trailer in a Florida swamp, time is running out for eighteen year-old Erin Seabright. A pawn in a kidnapper's terrifying game for a ransom no one can pay, her last hope is a washed-up ex-cop who has already lost it all-not once, but twice.

The wealthy world of the Palm Beach horse set seems a long way from a cop's world in the narcotics division. A lifetime ago, undercover sheriff's detective Elena Estes worked the mean streets and BackTop alleys, living by her wits and playing the long odds until she took one risk too many. Now Estes lives on the ragged edge of lost hope and self-hatred, hiding from the past and believing she doesn't deserve to have a future. But the past is about to come back with a vengeance, and the future is about to become a race between life and death.

A young woman is missing and her twelve year-old stepsister comes to Estes for help. No one but serious, studious Molly Seabright seems concerned about what's happened to her troubled older sister. But Molly is convinced Erin is in danger. Estes has no P.I. license, no interest in a new career, and no desire to break her self-imposed exile. But the more she learns about the people Erin Seabright was involved with, the more her long-dormant cop instincts come back to life.

One trip to the show grounds where Erin worked as a groom, and Estes is quickly pulled to the dark side of a glamorous sport. Behind the glittering, ultra-rich facade is an ultra-ruthless world of drugs, payoffs, and dirty deals. A world of dissolute playboys and crooked horse-dealers, of royalty and rabble, of rivals and enemies. An obscenely wealthy world where anything can be had for a price--including a life.

And in that world stalks a killer who will lead Estes down a dark, twisted trail of decadence and deceit, mayhem and murder--from the gilded life of Palm Beach to the darkest corners of the Florida swamps, to a final show-down that could cost her everything. A race against time and evil. A race in which Estes is the dark horse--and no one is betting on her to win.

Reviews (4)

Dark Horse

Written by Nanette on November 14th, 2006

  • Book Rating: 4/5

Good characters, storyline and narration. I always enjoy Tami Hoag's books.

Dark Horse

Written by Anonymous from Cottonwood, AZ on November 10th, 2005

  • Book Rating: 4/5

I enjoy Tami Hoaq books, especially the Joanna Bradley series; living in Arizona I can relate to the areas these take place in and around. This read was a little different than I expected but was good non-the-less. It had the right amount of suspense, mystery and thrill and kept me putting another disc into my CD player.

Dark Horse

Written by Dragon Fly from Beverly Hills, CA on August 21st, 2005

  • Book Rating: 3/5

I love this narrator, Blair Brown...so she made it worth the listen. And I usually love Tami Hoag novels. This book was ok...a little predictable and I felt too much might have been cut out for the abridged version. Entertaining....but now WOW.

Dark Horse

Written by Amy B from Oakland, CA on October 14th, 2004

  • Book Rating: 5/5

I thought this was a great book. Fast paced and well developed.

Author Details

Author Details

Hoag, Tami

Tami Hoag was born Tami Mikkelson on the 20th of January 1959 in Minnesota. The town she lived in was very small, and there were few children her own age around her, prompting her to develop an active imagination and create stories from a young age. She completed high school and married her high school boyfriend, Daniel Hoag, in 1977.

Hoag never completed a level of schooling higher than high school, as she and her husband moved to a small town without easy college access. She spent the ten years working a variety of jobs, such as photographer’s assistant, showhorse trainer, typist, and salesperson. In 1988 she had her first publication; a romance in the Bantam Books Loveswept Line. After much success in the romance genre she switched to thrillers, where she was equally, if not more, successful and hit the New York Times Bestseller list thirteen consecutive times.

Hoag belongs to a group of women who all made the switch from romance to thriller at roughly the same time; called the “Divas”, they provide support and encouragement to each other.

Hoag currently lives in Virginia.