Kathleen Eagle, Ride a Painted Pony

Ride a Painted Pony

Kathleen Eagle

Mira, December 2006, $24.95

ISBN: 0778323595

During a terrible storm, Nick Red Shield finds the battered female on the side of the road. He gives her a lift offering to take Joey, as she calls herself to a hospital. She says no, so unsure what to do except he knows that he cannot abandon her; he takes her to his South Dakota ranch.

However, Nick will learn the cost of being a Good Samaritan. Joey is Lauren Davis, who is on the lam from dangerous mob connected Raymond Vargas, who has arranged for her to be killed. He has also kidnapped her son Joey. When she realizes that his home is a ranch with a champion horse racer, she thinks her luck may have changed. Nick needs a jockey and Lauren is quite the rider. Besides which, she hopes the horse will serve as a lure that will enable her to get Joey back from her dangerous former husband; the only flaw in her logic is that she is falling in love with her kind host.

This is an action-packed romantic suspense thriller in which the audience anticipates a High Noon showdown, and they will not be disappointed when it occurs. The storyline is driven by Lauren, who fears Vargas and what he will do to her, but is more frightened of what he might do to Joey, as he is a deadly monster. Though Vargas is somewhat over the top, readers will root for Nick and Lauren to defeat this seemingly invincible psychopathic adversary, who defines the rules of their deadly cat and mouse game.