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Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Death by Equine by Annette Dashofy

Annette Dashofy is known for her long-running series about Zoe Chambers, a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania. Five of the ten books in the series have been nominated for an Agatha award, the award given for traditional and cozy mysteries at the annual Malice Domestic mystery conference. The next in the series is scheduled for release in 2022.

 

This year Dashofy offers her readers a stand-alone, Death by Equine (ISBN Services, 2021), still set in Pennsylvania in a different milieu but readers of her Zoe Chambers series will recognize similarities. Dr. Jessie Cameron is a veterinarian with a thriving clinic who is asked to backfill for her friend and mentor Dr. Sam Lewis, the veterinarian at a nearby small horse racetrack, while he takes his first vacation in years. Early in the morning on the day Lewis is supposed to leave, he takes a last call about a colicky horse and is trampled to death in the horse’s stall. Everyone supposes it was a horrible accident. The horse wasn’t known to be difficult but horses are much bigger than humans and can do a lot of damage without meaning to.

 

No one admits to being the person who called Doc to treat the horse, who does not appear to have colic. Jessie insists on sending the horse to the veterinary school at Ohio State University for a complete medical evaluation. The toxicology results showed the presence of acepromazine, a sedative that adversely affects the horse and that no one had any reason to administer. Jessie became convinced that Lewis was sent in to the distraught horse’s stall deliberately to be murdered, and she turns sleuth to get to the bottom of the mystery. Her soon-to-be ex-husband Gregg is a state trooper who resists her efforts to investigate.

 

Animals are not routine murder weapons in mysteries but they have been used that way before, such as in A Risky Way to Kill by Richard Lockridge (Lippincott, 1969). Getting the logistics around this kind of murder worked out takes some thought by the author, since it involves an unpredictable four-legged being; it is not as straightforward as pulling a trigger.

 

The behind-the-scenes look at the operational side of a racetrack is authoritative in its detail. The colorful minutiae provide a compelling setting for the action. It also justifies a wide range of characters: people trying to earn a living, some who love horses, and a few unsavory types looking for an easy score. Inevitably the latter are found anywhere money is involved, and horseracing is a multibillion-dollar industry. IBISWorld projects 2021 revenues for U.S. horse race tracks to be more than $3.5 billion. Readers of the Dick Francis books will recognize many of these personalities.

 

Of interest to cozy readers and fans of animal-themed mysteries.

 

  

·         Publisher: ISBN Services (March 10, 2021)

·         Language: English

·         Paperback: 330 pages

·         ISBN-10: 1638485321

·         ISBN-13: 978-1638485322

  

Aubrey Hamilton ©2021 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

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Review: "Fast Track" by Bill Crider and Ed Gorman

Agent Dev Mallory was supposed to get off the train in Corvair, California. He would have too if he hadn't been drugged and slept through the train stop. He also had with him a young female Secret Service agent named Tess O’Neill who was also supposed to get off the train with him in Corvair. Now, as the train approaches Rock Creek and the fog lifts from his mind, Mallory realizes she is missing. According to the conductor she appeared to be ill and was escorted off the train by two unknown and yet very helpful gentlemen.

Rock Creek is an old mining town and Mallory has no choice but to get off the train now. His only option to get back more than forty miles to Corvair will be buying a horse. A major horse race with lots at stake happens in seven days in Corvair and Mallory has to get there as soon as possible. Mallory form a secret federal agency that is so secret it has no name and Tess from the Secret Service were assigned to protect the most famous race horse in the world named Starcrossed at the most famous horse race in the world. According to the U.S State Department it would also be a good idea to protect Prince John Brean of the Isle of Worthingham near Scotland, but the unnamed agency head known as “the Boss” is far more worried about the horse than anything or anyone else.

With his partner missing the assignment for Mallory just got much harder. With fifteen years of experience working for the agency plus plenty of time doing other things prior, he knows anything can happen at any time. Letting his guard down once got him drugged. Mallory isn't about to let his guard down again.

It soon becomes clear that there are some who want Starcrossed poisoned so it does not race and have taken Tess as a hostage to force Mallory to get that job done. He has less than a week to resolve things satisfactorily and the odds are not in his favor. The suspect pool is large, other agendas are at work, and much is at stake personally and professionally.

Fast Track by Bill Crider and Ed Gorman may be set roughly 100 years ago, but the issues in horse racing are almost as prevalent today. Recently released in e-book form by Rough Edges Press this is a complicated mystery western tale full of action, intrigue, and suspense. Rich and detailed in terms of characters and setting with plenty of twists and turns the read is a good one and well worth your time.

Fast Track

Bill Crider and Ed Gorman

http://newimprovedgorman.blogspot.com/

Rough Edges Press

http://www.roughedgespress.com/

March 2014

ASIN: B00J9XPUUY

E-Book

244 Pages

$2.99

Material purchased to read and review using funds in my Amazon Associate account.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014