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DEAD MAN'S TOUCH
by Kit Ehrman
Poisoned Pen Press, November 2003
314 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 1590580893


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

What would you do if, at age 20, say, you discovered that a good deal of what you thought was true about your life was, in fact, false? More, what if that shocking revelation came at a time when you were already battling some serious demons? And finally, what if that revelation tore away a major building block on which you'd rested a lot of driving anger? It's a lot to handle at any age and Stephen Cline, recovering from a vicious attack on his life, and son of a privileged and wealthy family in horse county, is thrown for a loop.

Cline's immediate answer is to leave home and seek answers about his future and his past, working in a racetrack stable. But it's a stable where underhanded activities including conspiracy and murder, threaten his already tenuous hold on life.

Author Ehrman has a deft touch in the development of her story. The scenes of the set-up are outstanding -- much better than the explanation on the dust jacket -- rich in emotion, swirling movement and menace. Although the excitement of some of the thoroughbred racing scenes are curiously flat, the interweaving of the plot and the context of the backside of racing, stables, interesting characters and daily life are well-handled and interesting. The pace is varied and logical in all the right places. Protagonist Steve Cline is a sympathetic well-drawn character except in a couple of places where he suddenly seems too mature and formal of speech.

This is an enjoyable novel is every aspect. I suggest you skip the dust jacket copy if you acquire DEAD MANšS TOUCH. The copy reveals too much which is better handled in the pages of the novel itself.

Reviewed by Carl Brookins, January 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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