Foreclosure
A
Bryn Wiley Mystery
Jacqueline D'Acre
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.
Mysteries in this series ...
Foreclosure
Stargazer Press (Trade Paperback), April 2008
ISBN-10: 1-897424-00-0 (1897424000)
ISBN-13: 978-1-897424-00-1 (9781897424001)
Omnimystery keywords for Foreclosure ...
Location(s) referenced: New Orleans.