Chestnut Mare, Beware (Natalie Gold Series) [Mass Market Paperback]

Jody Jaffe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 1997 | Series: Natalie Gold Series

"HAS AS MANY INS AND OUTS AS A CHAMPIONSHIP JUMPING COURSE. Take a deep seat and a firm rein and canter along."
--Washington Times                      

The official version says that former beauty queen Josane Ashmore died after being trampled by her unruly chestnut mare. Her mother declares it was murder. Yet when Charlotte reporters Natalie Gold and Henry Goode go to Virginia to prove it, they find more questions than answers. Who set Josane up in her charming Middleburg shop? Why were her personal belongings disposed of so quickly? And, perhaps most chilling, who keeps trying to kill Nattie and Henry?

"A tight, no-way-to-put-it-down whodunit that'll keep you guessing, gasping, and chuckling to the end."
--Lexington Herald-Leader

"[A] galloping plot."
--People

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jaffe gallops into the winner's circle with the second (after Horse of a Different Killer) investigation featuring horse-crazy Natalie Gold, fashion writer for the Charlotte Commercial Appeal. Eager to attend a riding clinic taught by a famous trainer in Virginia horse country, Gold promises to write a page-one story on the four-year-old death of horsewoman and former Miss Connecticut Josane Ashmore. As ambitious as she was beautiful, Josane ran with a fast crowd in exclusive Middleburg, Va., thanks to a discreet sugar daddy. Josane's mother insists that her daughter's death was not caused by a fall from a horse but was a murder her friends tried to cover up. Poking through circumstances surrounding the event, Gold finds an abusive ex-boyfriend, an employee fired for theft and a nurse who insists that the dead woman wasn't bruised when she was brought to the hospital. Gold also offers moral support to fellow Appeal reporter Henry Goode, who is investigating vague, threatening letters sent to the paper. With the letters came lists of bigwigs in Virginia and the Carolinas with no apparent connection to each other. When these personages start dying in alphabetical order, their link becomes clear: the tobacco industry. Gold may be only a workhorse on the newspaper, but her devotion to the amateur-show circuit and her growing skills as a horsewoman gain her entree into the rarefied milieu of the horsey set. Its glitter contrasts with the sordid world of the tobacco industry until the two investigations are bound together as smoothly as horse and rider in dressage. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Jaffe's second Natalie Gold mystery places the Charlotte newspaper reporter in jeopardy once again. Usually stuck with features and fashion, she finagles a chance to investigate and write about the suspicious death of a former North Carolina beauty queen in Virginia horse country. Natalie's favorite cohort from work, looking for clues in a separate case, assists in pinning down elusive facts about the victim?like who bankrolled her expensive horses, drugs, and shop. Plenty of humor, action, and chatty prose form an independent heroine.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 2nd ptg. edition (August 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804115524
• ISBN-13: 978-0804115520
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,810,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for any horse person!, January 5, 2001

By 

Debra M. Hall "fsfarms" (Mims, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chestnut Mare, Beware (Natalie Gold Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

Jody Jaffe's books are awesome and Chestnut Mare, Beware is one of the best. The story is a good one, fast paced, excellent dialoge, but what really does it for me is the accurate horse world descriptions. Very few writers get it all right, and Jaffe is one of them. Definitely a must read for any horse person!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite Nattie Gold mystery!!!, June 15, 1998

By 

Jenny Smits ([e-mail]) (Hedgesville, WV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chestnut Mare, Beware (Natalie Gold Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

Chestnut Mare Beware is definately my favorite of the Nattie Gold mysteries. I love that it takes place in Middleburg and Upperville! I have been to these towns many times, always gazing longingly at the beautiful Virginia horse farms. Jaffe portrays every aspect of the horse world accurately, from the snooty rich people to the gay trainers. When I'm feeling discouraged at not being able to afford riding on the A-circuit, her books always make me laugh. Her books, especially Chestnut Mare Beware, are must-reads for horse people. I can't wait for Sins of the Sire, her next book.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Give her the gilded hoofpick ..., January 28, 1998

By 

Sue P. Stewart "alwaysreading" (Bolivar TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chestnut Mare, Beware (Natalie Gold Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

The only thing wrong with any Jody Jaffe book is that there are not more of them. Natalie Gold is a real person, with wit, smarts, and real faults (hey, I'm terrified by oxers, too!). The horse show world portrayal is dead on, as are the sidelights -- Jack Russel Terrorists, indeed! So many novelists THINK they know about horses and horse people -- Jody Jaffe doesn't even have to think, because she DOES know. And the book titles are winners too -- get In Colt Blood on the shelves ASAP, please!