Product Description

Falsely implicated in the suicide of tire maker and former dirt-track champion Sherm Case, writer Jason Street's life is crossed up and headed for the haybales. Hope arrives in the shapely form of Case's daughter, who hires Street to prove that her father's death was not a suicide, but cold-blooded murder. With little to go on, Street joins the flat track circuit as a "pit helper" and sets off on a coast-to-coast hunt for the killer, accompanied by the brilliant but erratic young hotshoe Rusty McCann and his tuner, Ozzie ("Don't call me Harley") Davidson. The search takes him from gritty short tracks to blue-groove miles, where the stakes are higher than Street could have imagined--life and death.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2674646 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
"In Hotshoe, the characters are much more fleshed out, and the plot, which revolves around dirttrack racing is even more appealing. Anyone who's spent time around the dirttrack crowd will relate to the characters in Hotshoe. Smith manages to capture the warmth, camaraderie and good humor of these unique, real-life characters.

"Thankfully, Smith really nails the Chandler detective formula in Hotshoe. As in Chandler mystery, the reader of Hotshoe doesn't know what's going to happen until the very end of the book. And in the end, all the plot twists make perfect sense. Although the events are rather shocking. Smith writes with such skill that the reader never questions their plausibility. This is a book that will appeal to all detective novel fans, motorcyclists, and nonmotorcyclists alike. -- Motorcyclist

About the Author
Veteran motojournalist Jerry Smith has served on the editorial staff of Rider, Cycle Guide, and Motorcyclist, and currently freelances for motorcycle consumer and trade magazines from his home in Oregon. He is the author of the mystery Deadman's Throttle, his first novel, and Hotshoe, his second.

Customer Reviews

A really entertaining read
Jerry Smith does a wonderful job of conveying the dirt track experience; I found myself grinning widely at his description of the main character's first dirt track, and at various other passages as well. The mystery plot is interesting, and kept me turning pages well after bedtime, oftentimes grinning or chuckling out loud at a particularly well-crafted passage. Smith's got an easy-going, laid-back sense of humor that waits quietly until the right moment, and then either speaks up softly for good chuckles, or bursts forth and brings the house down. I really enjoy Smith's writing voice - it suits him well, and I can sometimes catch a glimpse of his grinning face in the background of the pages. His writing is honest, straight-forward, no-BS, somtimes gritty real life [stuff], and that's partially why it works for me.

As an avid motorcyclist myself, I always enjoy reading about bikes, and it was great to have two of my favorite genres, murder mystery & motorcycle adventure, put together. Smith's characters are well-written, and have their own shortcomings (which of course endears them to us and makes them much more real.)I plan to pick up Smith's _Dead Man's Throttle_ soon, to continue enjoying his work, and really recommend this book to anyone who's thought "hey, this might be good/fun/interesting," because it surely won't disappoint.