- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Three Rivers Press (Mar 25 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1400048370
- ISBN-13: 978-1400048373
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 1.6 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 222 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,582,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Ruby Murphy, 33-year-old animal lover and recovering alcoholic, makes a lovably quirky heroine in Estep's debut mystery. Bored with her job at the Coney Island Museum, Ruby agrees through a misunderstanding with "a willowy blonde woman" she meets on the subway to follow the woman's shady boyfriend. Soon Ruby is a hotwalker at Belmont Racetrack, indulging in her lifelong love of horses while tracking the slippery Frank, a horse groom and former trainer. When an obnoxious jockey infatuated with Frank dies suddenly, Ruby smells foul play and decides to investigate. Against the advice of her friends and neighbors, Ruby divides her time between the racetrack and yoga, classical piano lessons and buying organic ground turkey for her cats. What sets this book apart is its use of six narrators, including Ruby herself. At times confusing and annoying, this technique nonetheless adds texture and subtle shading. While Estep is no Dick Francis, she knows horses and aptly describes the folks who build their lives around them for better or worse. A charming mass of contradictions, Ruby is a female sleuth much like Sparkle Hayter's Robin Hudson, stomping around New York one step ahead of chaos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Ruby Murphy is an accidental sleuth and not a willing one. She would much prefer to keep bumping along in her dead-end job at a musty museum on Coney Island, taking piano and yoga lessons, and tending to her unappreciative cats and her motley collection of eccentric friends. But when she tells a gratuitous lie to a mysterious woman she meets on a subway, she finds herself being recruited for cloak-and-dagger duty at Belmont Park, which constitutes spying on a thug who may or may not be cheating on his girlfriend and, incidentally, killing horses. Ruby's affection for animals leads her to investigate the latter possibility a bit too vigorously, and soon her apartment is ransacked and her life threatened. It's a ride as horrifying as Ruby's beloved Cyclone, the monster roller coaster in the Coney Island amusement park, but the infectiously likable Ruby makes such a great companion that, once it's over, you'd like to go again. Dennis Dodge
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
I'm eyeing a willowy blond woman's red wallet when the F train stops abruptly, causing two large Russian ladies sitting across from me to lose control of their grocery bags. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
I'm eyeing a willowy blond woman's red wallet when the F train stops abruptly, causing two large Russian ladies sitting across from me to lose control of their grocery bags. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Summer Read,
By A Customer
This review is from: Hex: A Ruby Murphy Mystery (Paperback)
A chance meeting in a subway launches Ruby Murphy into the behind-the-scenes world of horse racing as she investigates a wandering boyfriend for a mysterious blond. Ruby is a likeable character and she wanders a part of New York City not often depicted in fiction. In between her adventures, she takes yoga and piano lessons and neglects her real job at a Coney Island museum near her home. The story is told in several different voices, a technique that adds richness to the story. I hope there are more books starring Ruby Murphy.
5.0 out of 5 stars
No Rhesus Sardonicus,
By Blossom Harry (NYC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hex: A Ruby Murphy Mystery (Paperback)
A lively foray into the life of the stubborn and irrepresible Ruby Murphy. Her peculiar outlook on this bittersweet dumbshow, her wide-armed acceptance of all that is mean-spirited and foul is inspirational. I will gambol with Ms Estep's maniacs anytime.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fresh life for the mystery genre!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Hex: A Ruby Murphy Mystery (Paperback)
There's plenty of things about this book that set it apart from other works in the mystery genre, but if I had to sum it up into one thing it would be this: humanity. Ruby Murphy is endearingly, refreshingly HUMAN, as are the rest of the cast of this story, and we're allowed to get more than one perspective of what is going on, thanks to the creative use of different narrators, all of whom are wonderfully - and believably - eccentric. Maggie Estep breathes fresh life into the genre and leaves me wishing that some of her characters lived in my neighborhood, which is not something I can say for any other mystery I've read. Usually in a mystery you can't wait to get to the end to find out what happens, and while this one is definitely a page-turner, I was so in love with the characters and the world they inhabit, I didn't want it to end. The prose is direct yet very poetic and vivid. This book is a breath of fresh air - and an especially tasty read for horse lovers, as the author lovingly illustrates via Joe the racehorse what makes these graceful creatures so appealing. I'm eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.
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