Hot Seat

May 21, 2012
At the start of Wood’s solid second racecar mystery (after 2011’s Did Not Finish), 21-year-old driver Aidy Westlake, who’s pleased to have won a spot on Ragged Racing’s European Saloon Car Championship team, is dismayed to discover mechanic Jason Gates with his throat cut underneath a vehicle at the annual motorsport show held at London’s Earls Court. First, Det. Insp. Joan Huston treats him like a suspect, then Jason’s beefy brother, Andrew, knocks him around and demands Aidy identify the killer. Between trying to please racing owner Richard “Rags” Ragsdale and learning to work with his new pit crew and car, Aidy tries to do a little investigating, but soon finds himself facing trumped up charges of dangerous driving. Professional jealousies, possible drug smuggling, and race-fixing provide motives and suspects. Racing scenes enliven the action as Aidy tries to extricate himself from trouble by trapping a killer. Agent: Amy Rennert, the Amy Rennert Agency.

June 15, 2012
A second case for British race car driver Aidy Westlake reads like a carbon copy of his first (Did Not Finish, 2011), with heat indiscriminatingly applied. His nomination as Pit Lane magazine's Young Driver of the Year has catapulted Aidy from the Formula One circuit to the European Saloon Car Championship. Richard Ragsdale, his new boss at Ragged Racing, has paired Aidy with ESCC champ Kurt Haulk and sung his praises to the world. His presentation at Pit Lane's Racecar Show and Exhibition at Earls Court is a night to treasure--until the departing Aidy stumbles over the form of mechanic Jason Gates, dying from a cut throat. From this point on, Aidy's troubles rapidly multiply. DI Joan Huston makes it plain that she considers Aidy her top suspect in the killing. The following day he's kidnapped by henchman Dominic Crichlow, bound and hooded, and taken to Jason's brother Andrew, a loan shark who accuses Aidy of the murder and then demands that he unmask the real culprit if he wants to keep his grandfather, classic-car restorer Steve Westlake, healthy. An angry driver on the Runnymede roundabout nearly collides with Steve, then tells the local police that he crashed into her car. En route to deliver a sponsor's car to Munich, Aidy gets picked up in France by cops who find cocaine in the vehicle and gets blackmailed into spying on Ragsdale's operation. And that's before the sponsor's car gets stolen. It's easy to see why Ragsdale tells his new employee: "You have fantastic talent for calamity." Somewhere along the line Jason's killer gets brought to book. But it's much more entertaining to watch Aidy get into one jam after the next. His laps around the racetrack must provide the most relaxing hours of his life.

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July 1, 2012

Talented racing driver Aidy Westlake makes his sophomore outing (Did Not Finish), moving on from Formula Ford to the European Saloon Car Championship. He has barely had a minute to revel in his new success when he inadvertently trips over a knifing victim. Suspiciously, Jason (the dead guy), a mechanic for a competing team, was next to Aidy's team transport van. Seeking vengeance, Jason's brother insists that Aidy find the killer--outside of the law. Before long, the government's customs agents want Aidy to investigate undercover because they suspect Aidy's team is smuggling drugs in their cars. How is a guy supposed to concentrate on his day job with all the cloak-and-dagger activity here? Aidy is lucky to have his own investigative team: grandfather Steve and best buddy Dylan. VERDICT Throttle up for a thrilling ride and a dynamic climax. Despite the story's nearly overwhelming number of bad guys, Wood makes it easy for readers to keep up. Racing aficionados will love the details about the sport and welcome Aidy's continued sleuthing success.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2012
Aidy Westlake is a British race-car driver. His story is filled with harrowing competitions and loving descriptions of dreamy cars. No matter if you don't know a servo from a magneto; Wood's description of race cars is as entrancing as James Bond's lengthy golf game was in Goldfingeryou can't stop reading. When Aidy isn't burning the track, he's dealing with murder, extortion, and drug smuggling. After having the misfortune of hearing a dying man's last words, and being pressured by people on both sides to reveal what they meant, he turns frightened detective to get out of the mess. Wood tells the story with an Anglo vocabulary that's both chatty and intense: You've got some front on you! Would that it carried the book through a sagging middle, where plot turns meant to rally things only drag them down. But there's a boost in the last lap, when a fiery struggle joins insights into a particular kind of evil, bad people turning sad people to their own ends. The reader will join Aidy in feeling sympathy for those who just want things to go differently.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)