Cold Burn

By Kit Ehrman

      Steve Cline had promised himself that when he no longer felt challenged in his job he would look for another. He has been at Foxdale Farms with its hunter and jumper show barns for three years and feels that the routine has become that--routine. So it is with enthusiasm that he accepts the request of Corey Claremont, one of Foxdale's boarders, to help find her missing brother, Bruce, who quit his job for no apparent reason and hasn't been seen since.

    Steve gets a job at Stone Manor Farms, a thoroughbred-breeding farm in Warrenton, Virginia, replacing Bruce. By establishing relationships with the owners and the help he tries to understand Bruce's life there. While patrolling the foaling barns, he senses that all is not as it should be with the owner, Deidre Nash and her husband, Victor. Steve suspects that a series of arson fires in the neighborhood are meant to intimidate Deidre who is terrified of fire. He suspects also that Deidre is using illegal artificial insemination on some of the thoroughbreds, which would cause the farm to be disqualified.

    While performing his duties which now include foaling the mares and trying to find what has happened to Bruce, Steve's life is complicated by Jenny, the Nash's young daughter. Furthermore, a jealous coworker thinks Steve is poaching on his girl, Maggie; he has problems with his girl, Rachel, and an uneasy relationship with his natural father. The more Steve sees, the more he is convinced that Bruce has been killed. In the final confrontation, Steve must escape from a fiery conflagration in one of the foaling barns.

    Once again, Kit Ehrman has proved that she is eminently qualified to fill the void left by the retirement of Dick Francis. She has given us a book filled with the world of thoroughbred breeding. The descriptions of foaling are graphic and give the reader a feeling of participating in the birth of a new thoroughbred. Her writing style is realistic and smooth. The reader experiences the routine and management of the horse farm. The description of the fire is riveting; you can feel the heat and the force of the flames. The characters are fully developed. We continue to watch Steve's character develop, coming to terms with his natural father and his feelings toward the man he thought was his father. Steve is an extremely likeable young man who has human failings and frailties, but is strong and continues to mature. We should see more of him in the future.