Chestnut Mare, Beware

"Delightful," raved the Washington Post Book World of Jody Jaffe's first mystery thriller, Horse of a Different Killer, "I hope Natalie Gold doesn't wait too long before jumping back into the suspense-story saddle again." Now, the wait is over: Equestrienne journalist Nattie Gold is back--and with the threat of murder afoot, it may just be her final ride.
It's Christmas, but at the Charlotte Commercial Appeal two disturbing events nip Nattie's holiday in the bud. One is a chilling anonymous letter that threatens big-wig Carolinians--many of them known to Nattie from the show horse circuit--with horrible death. Then she's approached by a woman with a strange tale about her beautiful dead daughter. The official version of how former beauty queen Josane Ashmore died is that she was trampled by her unruly chestnut mare. Her mother declares that it was murder. Can Nattie go to Virginia and prove it?
Nattie and her friend, Henry Goode, the paper's chief investigative reporter, light out for the beautiful green hills of northern Virginia, where great estates shelter the world's finest horses and their wealthy owners. It is the place where Josane rode to her death. Unfortunately, all that Josane's old buddies will say is that she chose to ride a crazy horse and paid the price . . . and, well, she may have had a little coke habit. But who set Josane up in her charming Middleburg shop and paid for her horse and her designer gear? What about her abusive boyfriend? Why were her personal belongings disposed of with such unseemly haste? And urgently, who keeps trying to kill Nattie and Henry?
The behind-the-print politics of a daily newspaper, the secret lives of the filthy rich, the dirty deals and killing competition of the show horse circuit--in Chestnut Mare, Beware Jody Jaffe creates a brilliant balance of murder, mischief, and menace.

Jody Jaffe has long experience in both the worlds of journalism and horse shows. For the past twenty-four years she has been riding and showing hunters, and she spent ten years as a feature writer for The Charlotte Observer. Her first novel, Horse of a Different Killer, was nominated for an Agatha Award. She makes her home in Washington, D.C.


From the Paperback edition.