Calling HUSH MONEY a “delightful debut,” Library Journal has given it a starred review, which you can read right here:
When Sydney Everett’s Olympic-caliber jumping horse, Hush Puppy, dies suddenly, her law firm jumps into action, sending out young Pasadena, CA, attorney Jack MacTaggart. Sydney is worth watching because another horse she owned died under suspicious circumstances just a few years earlier. Jack follows a circuitous paper trail and learns that Sydney was guilty of insurance fraud that first time, and someone within the club has been blackmailing her ever since. Jack knows he’s hot on the trail when the next death turns out to be that of his mentor at the law firm. Stable manager Tara Flynn clues in Jack to the riding club’s dirt and also provides romantic interest and an investigative assistant he can trust. Meanwhile, Jack’s other case, about medical insurance, gives him the break he needs. VERDICT Winner of the SouthWest Writers (SWW) grand-prize Storyteller Award for 2010, trial lawyer Greaves’s delightful debut, which the SWW also named Best Mystery of 2010, cleverly intermingles equestrian show jumping, insurance claims, and high-tech science in this sunny California thriller. Great readalikes for tone would be Jack Fredrickson and Spencer Quinn. [Greaves’s second book, Hard Twisted, was named best historical novel of 2010 by the SouthWest Writers and will be published by Bloomsbury USA this fall.—Ed.]