Thriller: The Horsewoman by James Patterson & Mike Lupica (Late -- Sorry!)

 

Author: James Patterson & Mike Lupica

Title: The Horsewoman

Genre: Adrenaline (Thriller)

Publication Date: 2022

Number of Pages: 433

Geographical Setting: Wellington, Florida

Time Period: Present Day

Plot Summary: Three generations of women have been raised in the business and passion of equestrianism. Grandmother Caroline owns a struggling horse barn. Her superstar daughter Maggie is right on track to go to the Paris Olympics on Coronado, an elite horse they've quite literally bet the barn on. Maggie's wayward daughter Becky is naturally talented, but does not yet have the keen focus of her mother. 

When Becky makes a mistake that causes her mother to get injured, Becky seems to be the only one who can save the family's honor and barn by riding Coronado. However, Maggie soon starts riding again against doctor's orders, and she wants her horse back. Hanging over them all is a manipulative businessman with the lion's share of financial stake in Coronado, and Becky's close friend and trainer Daniel, who is in danger of being deported. Becky, Maggie, and Caroline must overcome decades of tension to make it to the Olympics and save their barn.

Subject Headings (per Novelist): 

• Mothers and daughters
• Olympic games
• Horses
• Competition
• Humans and horses
• Equestrians
• Equestrianism
• Olympic athletes
• Interpersonal conflict

Thriller Appeals:

Pacing - "Thrillers move at a rapid pace, driven by the danger faced by the protagonist" (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019).

    This book clipped along extremely fast. The book was divided into 130 short chapters, which were  themselves made of short sentences and paragraphs. This structure lent itself into a quick reading experience. Almost every chapter ended on a cliff-hanger, so that the reader would be compelled to turn the page immediately. Chapters also jump between points of view to quickly move readers around the setting of Wellington without wasting time on traveling scenes.

Language - "These cinematic stories center on the plot" (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019). 

    This book sustained itself on sparse details. For instance, the reader never learns the coat color of Coronado, the horse at the center of the novel's plot and conflict. He is a large horse, but we know nothing else. When the bulk of the characters are introduced in the first chapter, the majority of them have no descriptive text attached. When Becky first mentions her trainer and love interest Daniel, it is by name only, in a scene stripped of any background setting: "It was why my trainer, Daniel, had taken to calling me Maverick, after the character Tom Cruise played in Top Gun" (Patterson & Lupica, 2022). This tied in with the pacing, in that it made for a quicker reading experience, since the reader was not tripping over superfluous description that would slow down the plot.

Characterization - "Secondary characters are less well developed and may even be caricatures" (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019).

    The characters in this book were trimmed down the bare essentials of personality. Becky is a party girl who must tamed. Maggie is ambitious. Caroline is standoffish. Daniel is level-headed and supportive. This is nowhere more apparent though than in that of the antagonist, Gorton. Gorton occasionally receives his own point of view chapters, where we see that he is misogynist, racist, classist, and more. While on the phone with a rival equestrian he is conspiring with, he describes the women he is in business with as such: "I actually kind of like Maggie. Might have tried to hit that under different circumstances. It's the kid and the old lady who piss me off. The kid especially. She looks at me like I'm old loser trying to hit on her" (Patterson & Lupica, 2022). Gorton has so little depth as an antagonist because any further depth would slow down the plot. While there are definitely ample plot twists and the "[essential] double crosses" (Wyatt & Saricks, 2019) delivered by these characters, they are in part in able to pivot so quickly because they are not bogged down by constant internal conflict.

Three terms that best describe this book:

• Fast-paced
• Compelling
• Suspenseful

Thriller Read-alikes:

The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Kapelke-Dale, R. (2021). The ballerinas. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Common Appeals: Competition between women, suspense, women athletes, ambition.

Daylight Second by Kelly Ana Morey

Morey, K. A. (2016). Daylight second. Auckland: HarperCollins Publishers

Common Appeals: Horses, sports rivalry, engaging.

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Jenkins Reid, T. (2022). Carrie Soto is back. New York: Ballantine Books.

Commons Appeals: Sports rivalry, women athletes, winning and losing.

Nonfiction Read-alikes:

Out of the Clouds by Linda Carroll & David Rosner

Carroll, L., & Rosner, D. (2018). Out of the clouds. New York: Hachette Books.

Common Appeals: Equestrianism, horse sports, horse training.

The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts

Letts, E. (2022). The ride of her life. New York: Random House Publishing Group. 

Common Appeals: Horses, human-animal relationship, women athletes.

Let's Ride by Sheila Varian.

Varian, S. (2018). Let's ride. Independently published.

Common Appeals: Horses, horse sports, women athletes.

References

Patterson, P., & Lupica, M. (2022). The horsewoman. New York: Little, Brown and Company

Wyatt, N., & Saricks, J. G. (2019). The readers' advisory guide to genre fiction. American Library Association.