Dead Heat [Hardcover]

William Murray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2005

Dead Heat is a story of obsessions--of people driven to pursue their dreams and their desires at whatever cost. The haunted young woman who shows up one day outside the horse trainer, Jake Fontana's tack room at the Santa Anita racetrack is not merely looking for work, but has an agenda: she wants to become a great race rider.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Those who have read or seen Million Dollar Baby will 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 Dodge
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

William Murray was a staff writer at "The New Yorker" for more than thirty years and authored more than twenty novels and works of nonfiction, including "City of the Soul" and "The Last Italian," He died shortly after completing this book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Eclipse Press (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581501315
• ISBN-13: 978-1581501315
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,425,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Sad That This Is His Last Book, September 18, 2005

By 

snappyguynj (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Heat (Hardcover)

This is Murray's last book, having passed away earlier this year. If you are a racing fan or otherwise interested in the world of the racetrack and the crazy people who inhabit it, buy this book. It's funny, touching, and all too familiar for those who love the horses. And then buy all of Murray's racing mysteries. This final book is a great read and I hated to see it end. Murray captured what makes a day at the races so special to many of us. One of these days I'll finally get out to Del Mar and hoist a beer and a few losing tickets in Murray's memory. Until then I'm stuck with the great books he wrote. If you love racing, you'll love this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For Racetrack Fans, September 16, 2009

By 

Peter Weissman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dead Heat (Hardcover)

I was taken by the racetrack accuracy of this book, the author's evident familiarity with the world of trainers and owners, jockeys and agents; stakes horses, horses running for a claiming price, horses in maiden races, etc. And Murray clearly knows the ins and outs of an actual race, from the influence of the track surface on a particular horse to the predilections of certain horses to run in front and others to come from behind. And he knows a thing or two about betting as well. All of which, as a racetrack railbird over the years, I appreciated and enjoyed.

But as a mystery reader, I found the plot unconvincing and at times uninteresting, drawn as it is against the so much more convincing details of the racing game. And after a while the characters' repeated assertions about how wonderful the world of the racetrack is--better than any other--put me off my feed, so to speak. Though I don't disagree with the sentiment, it yanked me away from the story and all but sank the plot beneath the notion that the mystery was no more than a device to enable Murray to talk about the world of racing.I Think, Therefore Who Am I?