Fatal Odds

In part one of Dobbyn’s exciting fifth novel starring Boston lawyer Michael Knight (after 2013’s Deadly Diamonds), jockey Victor Mendosa is accused of murder after his older brother, Roberto, also a jockey, dies in a fixed horse race at Suffolk Downs. Knight, the Mendosas’ cousin, is determined to represent Victor, whose past association with a Puerto Rican gang soon leads the attorney to meetings with underworld types and threats against his life. Eventually, Knight follows Victor to Puerto Rico. Part two shifts to the Amazon rainforest, where Ancarit and his grandfather Ancuro are forced to capture rare primates and birds by intruders into their world. A Puerto Rican gangster delivers a tutorial on international animal smuggling that closely resembles the author’s note at book’s end. An additional plot thread involves drug smuggling. Dobbyn packs these pages with numerous criminal organizations, each more scary than the next, and plenty of action, which builds to a highly complex sting operation engineered by Knight. (Aug.)