Search - True Betrayals

1995 book. Kelsey Byden, who believed her mother was dead, finds out she is alive and has spent years in prison for murder. Believing it was really self defense, she sets out to prove it and ends up enmeshed in two recent murders. The book gives insights, both good and bad, into world of horse racing .

Award-winning author Nora Roberts picks the high stakes world of horse racing as the setting for TRUE BETRAYALS, now in mass market paperback. Kelsey Byden's father told her that her mother died when Kelsey was very young, a fact Kelsey never questioned until the day the fateful letter arrived.

Naomi Chadwick is very much alive and living on Three Willows Farm, her horse racing stable located in Virginia. Kelsey is stunned not only to hear from her long "dead" mother, but to discover that the reason Naomi disappeared from her life was that she was convicted of murdering her lover and sent to prison. Now that Kelsey is an adult, Naomi wants the chance to meet and get to know her beloved daughter.

Angry but curious, Kelsey appears at Three Willows prepared to dislike and reject her mother, but Kelsey soon discovers a woman that she can not only like, but possibly even love. Despite the vociferous protests of her paternal grandmother, Kelsey decides to get acquainted with her mother.

Gabe Slater, fellow racing stable owner and close friend of Naomi's, is intrigued and attracted to Kelsey, causing sparks and sexual tension to fly whenever they come in close contact. Gabe and Naomi are both proud owners of potential Kentucky Derby winners, and Kelsey soon finds herself entranced with the whole horse racing lifestyle.

Unfortunately, horse racing is an extremely competitive and lucrative sport that can make some people capable of even sabotage and murder. Someone seems bent on destroying both Naomi and Gabe's horses, and with the stakes this high, no one can afford to lose.

Gripping drama, overwhelming passion and bitter deceit are all delicately spun together by the incomparable Ms. Roberts as she delivers another of her unforgettable reads.

If you're a Nora Roberts fan, this reissue of an old goodie is one of the best. Envy, greed, hot romance and thoroughbred racing. This is a hot, fast read and lots of fun along the way.

Not a bad story of a young woman who learns her mother did not die 20 years ago but had been sent to prison for murder. Set against a well-rendered background of Thoroughbred horse racing, the romance is flawed by a really contrived ending.

great story of the life of horses and love

Kelsey Byden is finally divorced from her husband after a two-year separation when she discovers that her mother, Naomi Chadwick, is alive and living on a horse farm in Virginia. As a child, she had been told by her father that her mother had died and she grew up living with her father, Philip, an English professor at Georgetown.

But the fact is that her mother did not die, but was convicted of murdering her lover and sentenced to over ten years in jail. Her mother contended it was self-defense, but could not get her conviction overturned. She did not want Kelsey to visit her in jail, so she agreed to allow her father to tell her that her mother was dead.

Kelsey decides to accept her mother’s invitation to come live with her and for them to get to know each other. Her father and step-mother, who her father married when Kelsey was 18, are not exactly happy and her grandmother, Milicent, is furious. So furious that she tries to cut Kelsey out of the trust that her grandfather had set up for her. Milicent is extremely concerned with appearances and does everything she can to try to control Kelsey’s behavior.

Kelsey discovers that she loves life on the horse farm and she is starting to develop a relationship with the owner of a neighboring farm. Then things start to go wrong at some races and Kelsey decides to determine if her mother’s crime was murder, or manslaughter.

Once again, I enjoyed this book by Nora Roberts. There was one part that kind of had me wondering though. Kelsey knows how much her grandmother despises her mother and of her opposition to their marriage, I had a hard time believing she didn’t figure out much sooner that it was her mother who pushed the investigation in a way that would find her mother guilty and not her father.