Shhhhh - this book from a newish Australian author is due out in March so "technically" I shouldn't be mentioning it, but I started reading this last night with a view to getting a review out at the right time. I've got to say I'm really really enjoying this. Set in and around the horse-racing community, it's more than just a "horse racing book" so far.
From the Blurb:
John Punter, professional gambler and amateur private investigator, has seen his fair share of crime and shady dealings, both on the race track and off it. So when the daughter of a bookmaker friend is kidnapped, following hot on the heels of a gruesome murder after an abduction gone wrong, Punter's offer of help is gladly accepted.
Opening LInes:
I sat alongside Big Oakie White as he hunched over his kitchen table, sobbing. There was a half-empty bottle of Grouse on the table and he gripped a tumbler of the stuff in his cigar-like fingers. He'd been hitting it pretty hard. Can't say I blamed him. In front of him he had a photograph of his daughter Michelle, graduating from Swinburne University four years ago.
Now I promise to stop until the release date (but it really wouldn't hurt for people to be keeping an eye out for this book.....)
John Punter, professional gambler and amateur private investigator, has seen his fair share of crime and shady dealings, both on the horse track and off it. So when the daughter of a bookmaker friend is abducted, following hot on the heels of a gruesome murder after an abduction-gone-wrong, Punter's offer of help is gladly accepted.
But then, just when everything seems to be going right, a local trainer hits a run of unusual bad luck and a young jockey dies under suspicious circumstances. With the help of a journalist friend, Kate, Punter begins to put the pieces together, and finds himself drawn into a tangled web of underworld crimes that are much more sinister than he had anticipated.