Ex-narcotics officer Elena Estes has been slowly putting her life back together after the mistake in judgment that left her physically and mentally scarred, and a colleague dead. Now, a newly broken relationship has her racing wildly across the Florida landscape on a horse worth more than a college education. Irresponsible? Sure. And a day that started poorly doesn't get any better. Her headlong plunge leads her to a floating body - her lovely Russian co-worker Irina, strangled and left for the alligators.

Elena can't help but be drawn in to the investigation, even though it's pulling her back to her past, the glittering, corrupt, polo season scene and her own broken family ties.

A very good, suspenseful mystery. My pet peeve with horse-related fiction is often how unrealistic the horse-related detail often is. This one is actually pretty good, but stretches realism a bit, especially when it comes to horse care: everyone else's horse barns appear to have plenty of activity and grooms to do necessary chores, but at the barn where Elena is purportedly employed, the employees mentioned number two. With Irena dead and Elena occupied, that leaves the owner, Sean, who doesn't appear to do much with the horses besides ride them (and why should he - that's why he has grooms...). I kept wondering who was cleaning stalls, feeding & exercising all those horses....

Aside from that minor annoyance, (and no resolution as to the Freak), it read well, and I enjoyed it. Dark Horse, prequel to the Alibi Man is on my bookshelf, and will be one of the next books off my TBR list. ( )

I like Tami Hoag. She writes a very good story. She is currently very involved in dressage riding, and it shows. She somewhat follows the caveat: write what you know. This book is a follow-up to her book Dark Horse, and includes several of the same characters. The thing is, I'm not sure there was enough that was interesting about these characters to yield a second book. Plus, she had to murder one of those characters to make a story. I still like Tami Hoag, but this is not one of my favorites. ( )

Love Tami Hoag. This book took me to an area of life that I would never search out on my own. Rich, snotty, polo playing isn't every mans world. Throw in some murder and now we have a novel. ( )

Ex-cop discovers the body of a polo pony groomer by day and party girl at night. The wealthy Palm Beach set cover for one another making it difficult to investigate. ( )