Dark Horse

Always good company, ex-jockey and L.A. restaurateur Coley Killebrew is stuck in a somewhat less engaging story (after Stalking Horse and Fire Horse) about a jailed Colombian drug lord who plots revenge against a right-wing billionaire running for the U.S. presidency. Coley is mainly in the dark as he battles mysterious bad guys, the DEA, the CIA and his prospective father-in-law, Raymond Edgar Starbuck. While covering the Triple Crown races for a second-rank cable network, Coley finds the body of a PI working for Starbuck. He rescues his lover, Lea, Starbuck's daughter, from kidnappers, encounters various far-right nuts, beats back a couple of attempts on his life and, eventually, at the Belmont Stakes, saves the life of the billionaire candidate. The author's racing background and breezy story-spinning talent are shown to good advantage in Coley's first-person narrative. But the imperious, caustic, martini-swilling Starbuck is kept mainly offstage here, and his presence is missed. Shoemaker keeps the pages turning, however, with accruing corpses, complex romances and betrayals and a pretty little surprise at the end. (Apr.)