The Devil to Pay

After stumbling out of the starting gate, Daniel's racing thriller soon finds its stride with heart-stopping steeple-chase scenes and a plot that twists through nasty family secrets. Nick Storr, spoiled scion and rising-star jockey of classy Waylands stables, is abruptly and publicly sacked by his father, Perry, and Perry's second wife, Deirdre. Stable owner Maria Thornton, an earlier victim of Perry's rage, lures Nick from a drunken stupor onto her horses and into her revenge plans, spurring him to dig into his father's mucky past. Nick's mother helps, too, revealing some unlovely truths about Perry's acquisition of Waylands, which was bequeathed to him upon the death of a young widow many years earlier. Attacks by thugs mark Nick's progress until he is momentarily deflected by a job from his father's friend, mobster Chris Wildman. An arsonist--hired by Perry--torches Nick's mother's modest stable yard, setting Nick back on course and in real peril until he puts his main threat out of the running. Writing like Dick Francis without kid gloves, Daniel ( Unbridled ) layers multiple surprises into the extended conclusion of this rewarding tale of a rough-edged racing crowd. (Jan.)