Hush Money by Chuck Greaves, Minotaur Books, New York, hard cover, 304 pages, $24.99If you’re going on vacation in August, be sure and take Hush Money with you. I mean the book. It’s a first novel by Los Angeles trial lawyer Chuck Greaves that’s polished and fast-paced with crackling dialog, the latter often the death knell for many first-timers.
Jack MacTaggart, the story’s protagonist, is a non-horsey lawyer representing an insurance company investigating a claim on a recently deceased show jumper. Our lawyer gets educated about horses and the high stakes world of professional show jumping by Tara Flynn, a gorgeous young rider who despises the dead horse’s bereaved owner, socialite Sydney Everett.
Although lawyer Jack MacTaggart knows nothing about horses, lawyer Chuck Greaves, the author, clearly does. And he knows a bit about the law as well. So we wind up with a horsey legal thriller driven by fast-paced dialog that will at times amuse you, and at other times surprise you.
“‘Well let’s see,’ said she, leaning in to be heard. ‘How do I explain this? In the horse world, there are basically two kinds of people. The first are people who genuinely love horses, and who ride for the sheer joy of it, all the time in awe of the fact that these huge, beautiful creatures trust you enough to let you climb on their backs and guide them around, asking nothing in return.’
“‘That would be you, I presume.’
“‘Very astute. And then there are people who like the idea of horseback riding, or the image I guess, but have no empathy or sense of wonder about the bond between horse and rider. To them, riding is just something that looked chic in a magazine. They have no interest in learning to communicate with their horse, and no interest whatsoever in their horse’s feelings or well-being.’
“‘And that would be Sydney?’”
The scene is a bistro in Pasadena, and the waiter finally approaches.
“I ordered the rib eye, a decision of which Tara clearly did not approve.
“‘If animals aren’t meant to be eaten,’ I asked her, ‘then why are they made of meat?’”
Later, Tara fills Jack in on another rider in the show barn.
“‘She was on a daytime soap called After Yesterday. She played the slutty little blond.’
“‘Let me guess. It wasn’t a stretch.’
“‘Well,’ she said. ‘The blond part, maybe.’”
Hey, what can I say? I loved the dialog! There are enough twists and turns, traps and snares, in this little whodunit to keep you turning pages. I’ll be first in line for Chuck Greaves’s next offering.
Posted August 9, 2012