Blind Switch

One-time amateur boxer Jack Doyle, an irreverent and rebellious advertising account representative, goes to work one fine Chicago day and finds his desk - and his job - both gone. A two-time loser at the marriage game as well, Doyle, usually ultra-confidant, fishes himself out of a bottle to take stock, realizing, ''with a thumping finality, that Life sure as hell did have his Number and was crunching it.'' At loose ends, Doyle accepts a most unusual offer from an acquaintance, Moe Kellman, to fix a horse race. The context of making the deal, a Cubs game at storied Wrigley Field, sets the tone for the drama that follows. Thus begins a chain of events that will lead the FBI to Doyle's door where they ''coopt'' him into a quest after people who are maiming or killing thoroughbred horses for their insurance values. Their number one target is a loathsome media mogul who can't bear to lose ... at anything. Built upon recent factual events, spiced with satire and peppered throughout with engaging loonies, Blind Switch is a noteworthy first novel with a hero forced to ask in its ultimate line, ''Where have I gone right?''