Böcker av Robert a Hilliard

"Life''s Elusive Horizon ... an unholy trinity" is the conclusion to author Rob HIlliard''s "Cutter/Wellington trilogy," a saga of two competing families in the world of thoroughbred racing that takes place in the 1980s. TJ Cutter III is a legacy alumnus of the University of Virginia who aspired to a career in the diplomatic corps, but took over his family''s Leesburg, VA, horse farm upon the untimely death of his father. Beauregard Wellington is the first of his family to not participate in politics, his grandfather having been a long-time U.S. Senator while his daddy spent two terms as Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Taking over his family''s horse farm after serving an internship with a major breeding business in Florida, Beau wrote his own success story running the Lexington spread, which lay in the heart of thoroughbred country.The unfolding drama involves interactions between these two equine-industry elites and gradually envelops other members of their families as well as a growing number of business associates and acquaintances. Mayhem, ranging from financial scheming, business power plays and illicit sexual encounters to brushes with the underworld, acts of terrorism and murder, compel readers to tackle the author''s tale as quickly as Secretariat captured the Belmont Stakes on his way to the Triple Crown.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky's alcohol of choice, the sport of kings and power politics provide the combustible combination that embroils the Bluegrass State's first family, the Wellingtons, in an expanding web of scandal involving sex, murder, finance and brushes with the underworld. Set in 1983, former Governor and current bourbon distillery owner Bentley Wellington; coal baroness wife Abigail Prescott Wellington; and son Beauregard, who operates the family thoroughbred business, are central in turning What Are the Odds?... The Calculus of Coincidence and its sequel, All In?... Beware the Cross Currents into non-stop, cover-to-cover reads for fans of the thriller/suspense genre.But the Wellingtons have company in making these works of fiction incredibly enticing. First is Thomas Jefferson Cutter III, a youthful Virginia horseman whose fateful meeting with his Kentucky-based peer leads to a dueling dance of equine elites.Then there's Gretchen Weiβ Hauptmann, who's about to make a decision on the future of the German powder metal parts company she founded some two decades earlier, unaware of the neo-Nazi plot to "relieve" her of the business "one way or another." In an effort to buttress their efforts, the terrorist network with German-American ties focuses on the vulnerabilities of Bentley Wellington as a potential source of funds.The intertwining stories of these three families - the Cutters of Leesburg, Virginia; the Wellingtons of Lexington, Kentucky, and the Hauptmanns of Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia region - continue as summer turns to fall. TJ Cutter enjoys a meteoric rise in the world of thoroughbred horse racing, while Beauregard Wellington hatches a bold start-up bourbon venture in Ireland. Meanwhile, Gretchen Weiβ Hauptmann's narrow escape from a neo-Nazi terrorist group results in starting a new life in Canada under an assumed name. While TJ, Beau and Gretchen may be "all in" on the choices they make, the cross currents created by their decisions are likely to cause unforeseen consequences for those in their immediate circles.

The years immediately following World War II were a time of great change across America. In Kentucky, however, much remained the same. Three industries continued to dominate the Bluegrass State - bourbon, coal and "the sport of kings," thoroughbred racing. The Wellingtons - "the Commonwealth's first family" - had occupied center stage since Reconstruction, due in large part to generations of involvement in the state's political scene. For Bentley Wellington, wrapping up his second stint as governor, a fateful evening in San Francisco sets in motion events that, decades later, would embroil his family in an expanding web of scandal involving murder, sex, finance and elements of the underworld ... and ripple through multiple states and stretch to neighboring Canada as well as overseas to Germany's Rhineland.