In honor of yesterday's fantastic Belmont Stakes which resulted in American Pharoah winning the Triple Crown (first winner since 1978!) I'd like to shine a spotlight on a horse racing mystery. Although jockey Bill Shoemaker never won the triple crown (Victor Espinoza was just the 12th jockey to do so) Bill did win 11 Triple Crown races. He also wrote a mystery series. (Although I discovered he did have a ghost writer-Dick Lochte.) There are only three books in the series: Stalking Horse, Fire Horse, and Dark Horse. The first of which was published in 1994.
From the back cover of Stalking Horse:
Bill Shoemaker. Straight from the Winner's Circle, the greatest jockey of all time draws on his vast experience on and off the track to spin one of the most suspenseful mysteries of the year.
Coley Killebrew was one of the best jockey's in the business-until a race-fixing scandal got him barred from the track. Now the man responsible for blackening his name, racing steward Raymond Starbuck, offers Coley a chance to redeem his reputation. All Coley has to do is investigate some underworld characters who are muscling in on a track in New Orleans, resist the irresistible redhead he loved and lost, Francie Dorn, and reckon with Lea, Starbuck's leggy blonde daughter, who's as adept at seducing men as she is at blowing them away...
I think it's time for a new horse racing themed mystery. Perhaps a cozy, told from the point of view of one of the lead ponies. Hmmm....
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