Dead Heat
Those who have read or seenMillion Dollar Babywill find this posthumously published mystery from the late Murray to be curiously familiar. There is the crusty old trainer with deep emotional wounds, his faithful sidekick who more or less tells the story, and a young woman from the wrong side of the tracks with an unquenchable desire to be somebody. Because this is Murray, however, the milieu has been changed from boxing to racing, and the trainer trains, the sidekick bets, and the young woman rides Thoroughbred horses at Santa Anita and Del Mar in Southern California. Also, the sidekick is former gangland enforcer Sal "Bones" Righetti, whose innate nosiness leads him to search for the source of apprentice riding sensation Jill Aspen's troubled psyche. That search puts Righetti in harm's way, but he got his nickname by breaking bones, and he is nobody's pushover. Meanwhile, trainer Jake Fontana is preparing a rawhide-tough three-year-old that Righetti owns and Aspen rides, appropriately named Tumultuous, for the biggest race of his life. Murray's many fans will not be disappointed by his final act.Dennis DodgeCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved