I thoroughly enjoyed this story of a would-be actress behind the scenes of a film about a famous racehorse. Emily is still learning the trade when she lands the background work, so she asks all the questions we'd love to ask and pokes her nose into all the wrong tents, to show us what most people don't see. The more experienced extra she meets, Judith, fills her in on the background of the Kentucky house and its owners. The champion racehorse, his girl groom who vanished twenty years ago and was never seen again, and the womanising owner make for an interesting story. As Emily loves horses, though she's grown up a long way from owning Thoroughbreds, she get a chance to do some wrangling for the camera instead and meets the handsome stunt horse trainer. Her life starts to look up - then that man's assistant jealously starts to make trouble for Emily. The missing groom - we can guess that she was murdered but how to prove it or even be sure who was a suspect? This is an adult romantic suspense with plenty of horse presence and the details are well conveyed. Top marks. I'll be reading more from this author. There are truly only a few books that I have trouble putting down, even as I am falling asleep and I have a fair idea of who the culprit is, but this is one of them. Pettersen has choreographed a compelling story of a missing groom and the filming of a movie of the horse who went crazy. The characters - Dan, Em, Judith, Anthony, Lizzie, Billy, and the Hamiltons - all have depth and substance. The story captures the problems of work situations that are briefly intense and then end, the baggage from the past, and the potential for change. For the horse lovers, lots of horse action and compassion for animals. STUDS AND STILETTOS is one of a series of books about race horses and the third one I've read. THOROUGHBREDS AND TRAILER TRASH looks to be the most recent... Others include FILLIES AND FEMALES, HORSES AND HEROIN, JOCKEYS AND JEWELS, and COLOR MY HORSE.
What do You think about Studs And Stilettos (2013)?
Yet again another good read by Bev Pettersen. I think this is my favourite from this series.
—Whoofree
