The Stallion

In the sequel to The Betsy, twenty-five years after fleeing his ex-employer, Angelo Perino forms a shaky truce with Loren Hardeman III and returns to Bethlehem Motors, an act that sets off a fierce battle of wills and power. 75,000 first printing.

Twenty-five years ago, The Betsy, Robbins's bestselling novel about the auto industry, marked the beginning of the author's glory years as the king of commercial fiction. After the success of such titles as The Lonely Lady and Dreams Die First, a subsequent string of tired potboilers (The Piranhas, etc.) saw Robbins's sales skid. Now, in an energetic attempt to reverse that trend, the author has begun to write sequels to his best-known books: first The Raiders, which followed up The Carpetbaggers, and now this robust son of The Betsy, which mimics all the personal vendettas, steamy sex and complex plotting?as well as cardboard characters?of the original. It's 1972, and tyrannical auto tycoon Loren Hardeman has just fired the brilliant Italian-American racecar driver and auto designer, Angelo Perino, despite the fact that Angelo saved the company from being taken over by Hardeman's sinister grandson, Loren III. In revenge for Angelo's interference, Loren III has had the man beaten almost to death by thugs. Now the recuperating Angelo marries the bisexual Cindy, a test driver-turned-art dealer, and vows to even the score by taking the business away from the ruthless Hardemans. The international art world, the Japanese impact on the auto industry and a blood feud provide a fascinating global web of subplots in bedchambers and boardrooms as Robbins spins his lascivious, melodramatic tale. While this novel may not be the powerhouse The Betsy was, it has wheels and is a worthy successor. Doubleday Book Club alternate selection.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Last year Robbins subjected us to The Raiders (1994), his sequel (30 years later) to The Carpetbaggers. Now we have the sequel to another of his earlier novels, The Betsy, which, like The Carpetbaggers, was made into a popular movie with an impressive cast: Laurence Olivier, Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Katharine Ross, and Jane Alexander. Okay, but what about the book? Ah, the book. Well, The Betsy was about the ruthless competition between the Hardeman family, owners of Bethlehem Motors, and the studly race-car driver Angelo Perino. Hardeman senior welcomed Perino into the family business, but his son and grandson resented Perino and drove him out, beating him up badly in the process. Now, after some extensive plastic surgery, Perino's back. He ends up developing a new car for the company, called, what else, the Stallion (as in Italian); he also manages to bed all the Hardeman women. And what a bunch they are. No boy toys here, these gals know exactly what they want and how to get it. When they aren't having sex with the indefatigable Angelo, whose sweet bisexual wife pops out a new baby every year, they're wheeling and dealing. Robbins does interject some interesting bits about the car industry during the 1970s gas scare, when the Japanese first edged into the American market, but basically he just doles out sex scenes, each more ludicrous and, frankly, boring, than the next. Donna Seaman

Perennial best seller Robbins gallups up with a sequel to The Betsy.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.