All Risks Mortality

Insurance adjuster Mat Blaney, suspicious when a race horse injured for several million dollars dies suddenly, investigates and discovers grand-scale insurance fraud, double-dealing on Wall Street, and a threat of nuclear devastation in Israel

Any of the elements of this thrillerblending dirty financial dealings, massive insurance fraud, the grisly trail of an ex-Nazi and the threat of nuclear annihilation in Israelwould be enough to power an entire book. It's a shame, therefore, that these potent plot lines converge in a single, confusing novel that drags its heels right up to the unexpectedly hair-raising finale. After winning the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, the great racehorse Cornucopia is put out to stud by the syndicate that owns it. When the horse dies suddenly, no one seems more upset than European construction magnate Carlo Galatti, who stands to gain $200 million in insurance money. Then Matt Blaney, a partner in a small insurance firm, undertakes a dangerous international investigation that links Galatti to more than one vicious crime. Closing in on the man from another angle are two agents from Israel's secret service. Cunningham excels in the emotional scenes connecting Galatti and an unbalanced Israeli physicist in possession of missing plutonium, but otherwise he finds it hard to breathe life into the stock characters and overly glib situations that fill the remainder of the book.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This timely thriller has more than an interesting title. Ostensibly about an insurance claim, it concerns ego, money, nuclear energy, and the Middle East. In the course of the nicely written novel, Cunningham develops some interesting characters. The insurance claim relates to a fabulous race horse who dies of cancer. Concerned about an investment of this magnitude, insurance investigator Matt Blaney eventually turns up the horse's rotting corpse. From tissue samples he learns that the horse was poisoned with radium. Blaney begins to unpeel the layers of a complicated plot that eventually leads him to Jerusalem, where he meets Dr. Shenlavi, a nuclear physicist who believes he will only see his remaining child if he obeys terrorist instructions. Blaney manages to save the day. Though the plot is improbable, it's easy to suspend disbelief. If you like political thrillers, this is for you.Louise A. Merriam, L.E. Phillips Memorial P.L., Eau Claire, Wis.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.