Gentleman Takes a Chance [Mass Market Paperback]

Sarah A Hoyt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 24, 2009

There are those living secretly among us who have the power to change their physical form from that of a human to an animal, even animals thought to be mythical, such as dragons. Throughout out the ages, these shape shifters have come together in a loose organization to protect themselves from humans—and other shape shifters. According to their code, killing another shifter is a crime, no matter if the shifter was slaughtering humans.

      Kyrie Smith, a young panther shifter, must decide where she will stand: with her group or with humanity at large. And she’ll have to do it while both older shifters and her boyfriend Tom Ormson—a dragon shifter—push her from quandary to quandary and police detective Rafiel Thrall—who happens to be a lion shifter—demands her help in solving mysterious murders that he suspects have been committed by a shifter. But when Tom begins getting telepathic warnings from the Great Sky Dragon that his life is in danger, the same dragon who recently almost killed him, he and Kyrie realize that much more is involved than a homicidal shape shifter.

      Someone—or something—has been killing shifters in large numbers, and the most ancient and powerful of shifters are converging on the city to find the killer. And anyone, human or shifter, who gets in their way will be eliminated without mercy. . .

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sarah A. Hoyt has sold a dozen novels in various genres, including her new Musketeers Mysteries series, starting with Death of a Musketeer, and her acclaimed Shakespearean fantasy series, which started with the Mythopoeic award finalist, Ill Met by Moonlight. An avid history buff and longtime reader of sci-fi, fantasy, and mysteries Sarah has published over three dozen short stories in esteemed magazines such as Asimov's, Analog, Amazing and Weird Tales, as well as several anthologies. Residing in Colorado with her husband, two teen boys and a pride of cats, Sarah is hard at work on her next dozen novels.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Baen; Reprint edition (November 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439133255
• ISBN-13: 978-1439133255
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #621,928 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in Portugal far more years ago than I like to admit to, in a -- then very small -- place called Granja (lugar da Granja -- lugar possibly transtating roughly as hamlet -- but literally translating as "place") in the freguesia (allegiance/fiefdom) of Aguas-Santas (Holy Waters) in the Conselho (council) of Maia in the district of Porto.

All those designations are changed now, but as I like to tell people I grew up somewhere between Elizabethan England and Victorian England with just a little of the twentieth century thrown in.

This might be exaggerating -- not much -- but the truth is that I did go to a village school and learn to write with a quill pen. Though I used ballpoint pens at home. I penned my first "novel" with ballpoint at around the age of six. And since it was pretty easy -- all twenty pages of Enid Blyton rip-off -- I abandoned what I (by then) suspected was an unattainable aspiration of becoming an angel when I grew up. I decided instead to be a novelist.

Once this was decided, of course, it didn't take all that long at all. Only some... cough... twenty years, during which I acquired a degree from the University of Porto (where we didn't use quill pens), found that employment for English majors was at best scant, moved to the US, changed my name, got married, worked at a variety of jobs from multilingual translator to retail clerk, had two kids and a varying and scary number of cats and read far more than is good for any human being.

So, now I live in Colorado with my husband, two teen sons who are both taller and stronger -- and far more handsome -- than I and four indoor cats, plus a variety of Not-Our-Cats(tm) who beg food at the kitchen door and for whom we provide facilities summer and winter. But who are not... cough... our cats. Ever.

I've been telling lies for fun and profit since 1994 (I did it for free long before that.)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, December 6, 2008

By 

LaughingLion "I am Lion, read me review!" (North of Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gentleman Takes a Chance (Hardcover)

I really liked the previous book in this world, "Draw One In The Dark". This one is a noticeably better. The characters are better developed than a many writers manage in the fourth or fifth book in a series. The world is well drawn and wider and weirder than even the first book would lead you to believe. I adore it when authors don't throw everything into the first book and let you discover new places and people along the way it is so much more realistic than covering the characters same stomping grounds over, and over, and over and over again with only very small over dramatized changes.

Kyrie & Tom, Keith and the rest of the people we knew have all grown a bit since we saw them and it is the type of growth that makes you like both character and writer more.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than the first book, March 17, 2009

By 

Mike Garrison (Covington, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gentleman Takes a Chance (Hardcover)

This is the second book in a series about people who "shapeshift" into animals (both normal animals and mythical animals). I started reading it and then realized that it was a sequel, so I went back and read the first book first. I recommend that a reader should start with "Draw One In The Dark" before reading this book, even though I think this is the better of the two novels.

The first book was just a little too slow. Hoyt seemed to think that if five paragraphs of internal deliberation about how one character felt about another character were good, then six must be better and seven must be better yet. And the plot started out in medias res, but then advanced only in fits and starts for most of the book. But ... it was still fun. The characters were intriguing, even if the love triangle aspect has been way, way overdone.

But in this second book, the plot advances at a more constant rate. It's also more complicated and more interesting. And the love triangle aspect is de-emphisized. In its place was a remarkably realistic depiction of two very private people trying to adjust to living with each other under extremely stressful circumstances. The book also delves more deeply into the interface and conflict between the world of the shifters and the world of the normal people.

The first book was interesting, entertaining, but flawed. This book was more interesting, more entertaining, and less flawed. I look forward to another.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Followup, November 24, 2009

By 

Jason Cordova (Kentucky) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gentleman Takes a Chance (Hardcover)

One of the things that I love when reading a Sarah Hoyt novel is how each and every character is personal to the reader. That pattern doesn't change with the sequel to "Draw One In The Dark".

In Goldport, Colorado, someone is killing shifters. An ancient cabal of shifters, simply known as the Ancient Ones, are coming to town to kill whoever it is, be it shifter or human.

With that as the premise to "Gentleman Takes A Chance", the author picks right up where she left off in the first book of the series. The heroes (and heroine) of the novel must face old enemies and new alike, while struggling to hide their identities as shifters from the outside world.

Tremendously fun and a great followup novel.