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Dev Mallory #2
Fast Track
Ordered to protect a valuable thoroughbred entering a horse race offering the biggest purse in history, Secret Service Agent Dev Mallory must save his partner's life when she is kidnapped by a high-stakes player who is determined to beat the odds. Original.
240 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 2006
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16 people want to read
About the author
Ed Gorman
468 books122 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Edward Joseph Gorman Jr. was a prolific American author and anthologist, widely recognized for his contributions to crime, mystery, western, and horror fiction. Born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gorman spent much of his life in the Midwest, drawing on that experience to set many of his novels in small towns. After working over two decades in advertising, political speechwriting, and industrial filmmaking, he published his first novel, Rough Cut, in 1984 and soon transitioned to full-time writing. His fiction is often praised for its emotional depth, suspenseful storytelling, and nuanced characters. Gorman wrote under the pseudonyms Daniel Ransom and Robert David Chase, and contributed to publications such as Mystery Scene, Cemetery Dance, and Black Lizard. He co-founded Mystery Scene magazine and served as its editor and publisher until 2002, continuing his “Gormania” column thereafter. His works have been adapted for film and graphic novels, including The Poker Club and Cage of Night. In comics, he wrote for DC and Dark Horse. Diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2002, he continued writing despite his illness until his passing in 2016. Critics lauded him as one of the most original crime writers of his generation and a “poet of dark suspense.”
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Edward Joseph Gorman Jr. was a prolific American author and anthologist, widely recognized for his contributions to crime, mystery, western, and horror fiction. Born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gorman spent much of his life in the Midwest, drawing on that experience to set many of his novels in small towns. After working over two decades in advertising, political speechwriting, and industrial filmmaking, he published his first novel, Rough Cut, in 1984 and soon transitioned to full-time writing. His fiction is often praised for its emotional depth, suspenseful storytelling, and nuanced characters. Gorman wrote under the pseudonyms Daniel Ransom and Robert David Chase, and contributed to publications such as Mystery Scene, Cemetery Dance, and Black Lizard. He co-founded Mystery Scene magazine and served as its editor and publisher until 2002, continuing his “Gormania” column thereafter. His works have been adapted for film and graphic novels, including The Poker Club and Cage of Night. In comics, he wrote for DC and Dark Horse. Diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2002, he continued writing despite his illness until his passing in 2016. Critics lauded him as one of the most original crime writers of his generation and a “poet of dark suspense.”
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 15, 2017
Well, I suppose it had to happen. I've read 13 previous Ed Gorman books and only gave one of them a 3 star rating. Everything else was 4 or 5 stars. But finally I've found a Gorman book I didn't care for. I just didn't think this one ever got off the ground. Certainly it was professionally written, but mystery and westerns is a hard match and this one didn't do it for me. Dev Mallory is the first of Gorman's western characters that I didn't really care that much for. There are a lot better ones by Gorman out there.
May 12, 2014
Agent Dev Mallory was supposed to get off the train in Corvair, California. He would have too if he hadn't been drugged and slept through the train stop. He also had with him a young female Secret Service agent named Tess O’Neill who was also supposed to get off the train with him in Corvair. Now, as the train approaches Rock Creek and the fog lifts from his mind, Mallory realizes she is missing. According to the conductor she appeared to be ill and was escorted off the train by two unknown and yet very helpful gentlemen.
Rock Creek is an old mining town and Mallory has no choice but to get off the train now. His only option to get back more than forty miles to Corvair will be buying a horse. A major horse race with lots at stake happens in seven days in Corvair and Mallory has to get there as soon as possible. Mallory form a secret federal agency that is so secret it has no name and Tess from the Secret Service were assigned to protect the most famous race horse in the world named Starcrossed at the most famous horse race in the world. According to the U.S State Department it would also be a good idea to protect Prince John Brean of the Isle of Worthingham near Scotland, but the unnamed agency head known as “the Boss” is far more worried about the horse than anything or anyone else.
With his partner missing the assignment for Mallory just got much harder. With fifteen years of experience working for the agency plus plenty of time doing other things prior, he knows anything can happen at any time. Letting his guard down once got him drugged. Mallory isn't about to let his guard down again.
It soon becomes clear that there are some who want Starcrossed poisoned so it does not race and have taken Tess as a hostage to force Mallory to get that job done. He has less than a week to resolve things satisfactorily and the odds are not in his favor. The suspect pool is large, other agendas are at work, and much is at stake personally and professionally.
Fast Track by Bill Crider and Ed Gorman may be set roughly 100 years ago, but the issues in horse racing are almost as prevalent today. Recently released in e-book form by Rough Edges Press this is a complicated mystery western tale full of action, intrigue, and suspense. Rich and detailed in terms of characters and setting with plenty of twists and turns the read is a good one and well worth your time.
Fast Track
Bill Crider and Ed Gorman
http://newimprovedgorman.blogspot.com/
Rough Edges Press
http://www.roughedgespress.com/
March 2014
ASIN: B00J9XPUUY
E-Book
244 Pages
$2.99
Material purchased to read and review using funds in my Amazon Associate account.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2014
Rock Creek is an old mining town and Mallory has no choice but to get off the train now. His only option to get back more than forty miles to Corvair will be buying a horse. A major horse race with lots at stake happens in seven days in Corvair and Mallory has to get there as soon as possible. Mallory form a secret federal agency that is so secret it has no name and Tess from the Secret Service were assigned to protect the most famous race horse in the world named Starcrossed at the most famous horse race in the world. According to the U.S State Department it would also be a good idea to protect Prince John Brean of the Isle of Worthingham near Scotland, but the unnamed agency head known as “the Boss” is far more worried about the horse than anything or anyone else.
With his partner missing the assignment for Mallory just got much harder. With fifteen years of experience working for the agency plus plenty of time doing other things prior, he knows anything can happen at any time. Letting his guard down once got him drugged. Mallory isn't about to let his guard down again.
It soon becomes clear that there are some who want Starcrossed poisoned so it does not race and have taken Tess as a hostage to force Mallory to get that job done. He has less than a week to resolve things satisfactorily and the odds are not in his favor. The suspect pool is large, other agendas are at work, and much is at stake personally and professionally.
Fast Track by Bill Crider and Ed Gorman may be set roughly 100 years ago, but the issues in horse racing are almost as prevalent today. Recently released in e-book form by Rough Edges Press this is a complicated mystery western tale full of action, intrigue, and suspense. Rich and detailed in terms of characters and setting with plenty of twists and turns the read is a good one and well worth your time.
Fast Track
Bill Crider and Ed Gorman
http://newimprovedgorman.blogspot.com/
Rough Edges Press
http://www.roughedgespress.com/
March 2014
ASIN: B00J9XPUUY
E-Book
244 Pages
$2.99
Material purchased to read and review using funds in my Amazon Associate account.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2014
December 26, 2009
Dev Mallory is sent by the Boss to guard a race horse, Starcrossed, owned by Royalty, leading up to the big race, the biggest money race in history. There are a lot of sharps working the area and horse racing has an unsavory reputation.
First, someone drugs his liquor flask on the train coming in and when he wakes, his partner, female agent Tess O'Neill had been taken. Eventually he is told she will be killed if he doesn't poison the horse.
Then someone sets the stables on fire, killing Starcrossed's trainer. Then they second trainer gets a dose.
An old partner of Mallory's, who'd left the service under a cloud, turns up and Dev figures he's involved somehow.
He has to find and rescue his partner, after all he will not poison Starcrossed, find out who's behind it all, it seems there may be more than one faction working against him, and insure that the thoroughbred is fit for the race.
First, someone drugs his liquor flask on the train coming in and when he wakes, his partner, female agent Tess O'Neill had been taken. Eventually he is told she will be killed if he doesn't poison the horse.
Then someone sets the stables on fire, killing Starcrossed's trainer. Then they second trainer gets a dose.
An old partner of Mallory's, who'd left the service under a cloud, turns up and Dev figures he's involved somehow.
He has to find and rescue his partner, after all he will not poison Starcrossed, find out who's behind it all, it seems there may be more than one faction working against him, and insure that the thoroughbred is fit for the race.
July 6, 2013
This is the summer I finish my weird western novel, so time to consume some westerns. Ed Gorman is turning into a fast favorite: his prose is lean and smooth and rolls right along, his characters are always entertaining and believable, and his twists well laid and...well...twisty. And sung talent, he is.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews