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Something Most Deadly
A twisted mind hides in the shadows. Haunting intrigue, a thread of romance and the magic of Dressage. Personality conflicts and jealousy complicate the life of Jane Husted, training showhorses on Springhill Estate in New England. Now someone wants her dead. Barely escaping a lethal trap in the monster showbarn, Jane has to watch her back and watch her step. Can she be vigilant enough to manage a career and not lose her life? Cutthroat competition with high-dollar showhorses, elite riders and a scheming socialite are a volatile mix. Someone is still planning to take her life. Brian Canaday shows up as an investor in the estate’s imported showhorses, a man who harbors memories of her ragtag childhood on Public Assistance. Jane’s newly polished image could be damaged if he remembers. Staying alive long enough for it to matter is now top priority. Clean romance, mild language.
408 pages, Paperback
First published June 24, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 31, 2026
Something Most Deadly by Ann Self blends suspense, romance, and the niche world of competitive dressage into an engaging and unique thriller.
What stands out is the setting high-stakes horse training and elite competition add a fresh backdrop to the danger surrounding Jane. The mix of personal stakes, hidden pasts, and a lurking threat keeps the tension steady throughout.
What stands out is the setting high-stakes horse training and elite competition add a fresh backdrop to the danger surrounding Jane. The mix of personal stakes, hidden pasts, and a lurking threat keeps the tension steady throughout.
November 16, 2013
Something Most Deadly (Jane Husted Series, Book 1) is a novel in the genre of Mystery/Thriller. However, most charmingly it is also a type of modern Cinderella story.
Author Ann Self's heroine Jane Husted is a young lady, who wants to make it in the complicated and expensive world of dressage riding. Opposite to a young girl trying to make it in the world of show biz, in this world talent alone is not enough. Having success requires the opportunity to perform with an expensive horse. Orphaned at a young age, Jane is poor and would have to get access to such a horse. This leads her path to the Springhill Estate of wealthy Elliot Whitbeck.
Elliot is a shrewd business man, who wants his only daughter Lucinda to become a world-class dressage rider. When at a local competition he sees that Jane has much more talent, he simply hires Jane as stable help and trainer for Lucinda, even though untalented Lucinda already has a trainer. Like everything else, which Lucinda gets, her trainer Lars is top-notch; he is a former coach from Vienna's prestigious Spanish Riding School. Then again, for Elliot this move may be more about gaining control of the talented competition. Now, Jane can only go to competitions if Lucinda goes. When all this help is not enough, Elliot buys a multi-million dollar horse, a Trakehner, flown in from Germany.
It may be the associated costs, which endanger all of Elliot's business operations. If Lucinda cannot win dressage competitions and thereby win sponsors for the Springhill Estate, the Whitbecks may lose everything.
This dangerous high stake game prompts one of the players to remember a dark past and use the same methods trying to kill the girl, who owns the talent Lucinda does not have - Jane!
Enter Brian Canaday, an extremely good-looking former special ops-agent, member of the rich and powerful Canaday family, former teenage crush of Jane's, and now widowed father and business man. While Jane thinks she does not want him, Lucinda would like to plan a wedding, and Elliot wants his money.
Ann Self's first book in the Jane Husted series is a great read because it is different mystery thriller. At least I am somewhat tired of drug dealings and special forces, so this novel's beautiful setting of an exclusive and beautiful estate captured me.
The author also has talent for being funny. Jane's friend Madeline gets to say:
"There just doesn't seem to be any decent men left," she had expounded, gesturing artfully with graceful fingers. "If you didn't rope and land one in high school or college, then you have to shop discount. The ugly, the mismatched, the cheap... unless you want someone divorced, and that can be a minefield. Then there's the younger crop-- but you have to play a lot of video games and drive around with a skateboard in your trunk."
And later, about Dwight Westerlund: "She noticed a lack of wedding ring-- explaining the poor laundry job. He was also too cheap to send his shirts out. Or maybe he was supporting an ex wife and ten kids and that precluded outside laundry service."
... sentences, real women of today would say and think.
Though other reviewers have stated that on occasion the author's descriptions of locales may be a bit too elaborate, Ann Self draws a complete picture of an interesting world, which at least I knew very little of. I fell in love with one of Jane Husted's show horses, "The General". When Elliot needs money "the General" gets sold. I will have to read the next book to find out what happened to him.
I liked reading Something Most Deadly. It is different: No street fights, no dark alleys, no drugs, no suitcases with money. It allows the reader to dive into an expensive world and see that even rich people have problems. Cinderella/Jane does not have it easy to stand up and make her mark. While the fact that this is a series tips off the reader that Jane will survive, others are not so lucky.
Author Ann Self's heroine Jane Husted is a young lady, who wants to make it in the complicated and expensive world of dressage riding. Opposite to a young girl trying to make it in the world of show biz, in this world talent alone is not enough. Having success requires the opportunity to perform with an expensive horse. Orphaned at a young age, Jane is poor and would have to get access to such a horse. This leads her path to the Springhill Estate of wealthy Elliot Whitbeck.
Elliot is a shrewd business man, who wants his only daughter Lucinda to become a world-class dressage rider. When at a local competition he sees that Jane has much more talent, he simply hires Jane as stable help and trainer for Lucinda, even though untalented Lucinda already has a trainer. Like everything else, which Lucinda gets, her trainer Lars is top-notch; he is a former coach from Vienna's prestigious Spanish Riding School. Then again, for Elliot this move may be more about gaining control of the talented competition. Now, Jane can only go to competitions if Lucinda goes. When all this help is not enough, Elliot buys a multi-million dollar horse, a Trakehner, flown in from Germany.
It may be the associated costs, which endanger all of Elliot's business operations. If Lucinda cannot win dressage competitions and thereby win sponsors for the Springhill Estate, the Whitbecks may lose everything.
This dangerous high stake game prompts one of the players to remember a dark past and use the same methods trying to kill the girl, who owns the talent Lucinda does not have - Jane!
Enter Brian Canaday, an extremely good-looking former special ops-agent, member of the rich and powerful Canaday family, former teenage crush of Jane's, and now widowed father and business man. While Jane thinks she does not want him, Lucinda would like to plan a wedding, and Elliot wants his money.
Ann Self's first book in the Jane Husted series is a great read because it is different mystery thriller. At least I am somewhat tired of drug dealings and special forces, so this novel's beautiful setting of an exclusive and beautiful estate captured me.
The author also has talent for being funny. Jane's friend Madeline gets to say:
"There just doesn't seem to be any decent men left," she had expounded, gesturing artfully with graceful fingers. "If you didn't rope and land one in high school or college, then you have to shop discount. The ugly, the mismatched, the cheap... unless you want someone divorced, and that can be a minefield. Then there's the younger crop-- but you have to play a lot of video games and drive around with a skateboard in your trunk."
And later, about Dwight Westerlund: "She noticed a lack of wedding ring-- explaining the poor laundry job. He was also too cheap to send his shirts out. Or maybe he was supporting an ex wife and ten kids and that precluded outside laundry service."
... sentences, real women of today would say and think.
Though other reviewers have stated that on occasion the author's descriptions of locales may be a bit too elaborate, Ann Self draws a complete picture of an interesting world, which at least I knew very little of. I fell in love with one of Jane Husted's show horses, "The General". When Elliot needs money "the General" gets sold. I will have to read the next book to find out what happened to him.
I liked reading Something Most Deadly. It is different: No street fights, no dark alleys, no drugs, no suitcases with money. It allows the reader to dive into an expensive world and see that even rich people have problems. Cinderella/Jane does not have it easy to stand up and make her mark. While the fact that this is a series tips off the reader that Jane will survive, others are not so lucky.
July 16, 2014
I very much enjoyed this novel. It was a refreshing read, and the characters were both believable and loveable. I love a good mystery, and the psychotic element that was thrown in to the mystery made the book even better. From the first page, I was hooked. Jane's story and her personality make her a very attractive protagonist to root for, and her underdog story in the middle of all this glitz and glam of the horse show world just adds another level of excitement. I loved the way that Ann Self built up the tension within the novel. There were romantic elements, too, but they weren't shoved into your face like some other romance elements can be. There was just enough. It made you want to read more and more, and the way the novel ended, I will definitely be reading more novels from this woman!
December 29, 2011
Free Kindle book... Better than I expected!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews