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Steven Cline is very young, at 21, to be the barn manager at a premiere equestrian facility. One night, he walks in on the theft of seven horses. The thieves beat up on him for a little while, and then load him into the trailer with the horses. He escapes, barely. The rest of the book combines his search for the thieves, his relationships with the people at Foxdale Farm, and brief glimpses of the life that brought him to a life with horses. Steven finds out from the police investigator, Detective James Ralston of the Maryland State Police, that the theft at Foxdale was not the first such crime in the area. Six months prior, six horses had been stolen in the next county over, and the owner had been murdered. As one might expect, this information shakes Steven up a bit. Things happen. A sign is burned. A workroom is vandalized. Small fires are started. Larger fires are set, much closer to home. These do not deter him from investigating on his own. He learns quite a bit in the process. Foxdale Farm is owned by a very wealthy man, bought as a gift for his wife, who died shortly after the purchase. It had been, for some time, a nice tax write-off. Due in no small part to Steven's efforts and suggestions, Foxdale Farm is now actually making a small profit. He has fired people, changed suppliers when he has been cheated, made employees toe the line. Is any of this a factor in the thefts? One of the clients, a man who boards a horse, may or may not be engaging in insurance fraud with said horse. Is this behind the thefts? Another of the clients, married, has been making aggresive sexual overtures to Steven. He has been resisting, but Mrs. Elsa Timbrook is very persistant. She is related to several of the people who come to Steven's attention during his investigation. How much does she know? How involved is she? There is a new sub-division going up down the street from Foxdale. Developers have approached Mrs. Hill, the farm's manager, about buying Foxdale Farm for more sub-divisions. The owner is not interested. Yet. How much of what is happening is connected to possibly making Foxdale Farm less appetizing to the owner? My only complaint about At Risk is quite trivial. Steven Cline seems, on many levels, much too mature to be only 21. In one of the scenes with Elsa Timbrook, his level of control is masterful for a man of any age. The restraint he shows in his blossoming relationship with Rachel is way beyond what most men in their early 20's can begin to fathom, much less use. His determination, his dealings with people much older than he is, his levels of insight into himself - way older than 21. The comparisons to Dick Francis are inevitable. And well-deserved. I hope Kit Ehrman can write for as long as Mr. Francis has. I wish I'd read this book years from now, because then there would be many more Kit Ehrman's on the shelf, waiting for me to read them.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, January 2003
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