Book Details
|
When Nikki works the January meet at Gulfstream Park near Miami, something about new racehorse owner, Currito Maldonista, worries her. Bad enough she’s expected to handle the evil-minded colt that reflects his owner’s personality, but Nikki suspects the Colombian is a drug lord, selling his product to the US. Even worse, could he be abducting underage American girls into a network of overseas sex trafficking?
Friend Carla Ruben contacts Nikki, desperate to find the teenage daughter she gave up for adoption. The adoptive parents have died unexpectedly, and the exotically beautiful girl was last seen in Miami. Nikki’s ominous association with Maldonista will lead her down a dark road where she must search for Carla’s daughter.
About this Author
Author Sasscer Hill has been involved in horse racing as an amateur jockey and breeder for most of her life. Now that she has turned to writing, it is only natural that her first two mystery novels are about horse racing.
Hill has a rich history as an amateur steeplechase jockey, horse farm owner, and has ridden in fox hunts for 22 years. For some 30 years Hill owned and operated a horse breeding farm in Maryland where she raised thoroughbred horses. Among the best horses she bred and raised was For Love and Honor which won $418,000 in New York racing at Saratoga, Belmont and Aqueduct.
Hill's love for horses is deeply inbred over a long lineage tracing to Samuel Ogle, colonial governor of Maryland in the mid-1770s. Samuel Ogle is credited with bringing horse racing to North America, staging the first English-style race at Annapolis, Maryland in 1745. Ogle imported Queen Mab, part of the first pair of English-bred Thoroughbreds imported to the colonies. Queen Mab was a gift from Lord Baltimore presented when Ogle travelled to England in 1745.
Her love of horses, experience in steeplechase racing, knowledge of horses and writing style has prompted many book lovers and critics to compare Hill with the famous British horse racing mystery writer, Dick Francis.
As promotions director for an academic publishing house, Sasscer Hill produced textbook catalogs for direct-mail to more than 250,000 academicians, libraries and other users. Her first novel, Full Mortality, was nominated for both the Agatha and Macavity Best First Mystery Awards.
Born in Washington, D.C., Hill earned a BA in English Literature from Franklin and Marshall College and now lives with her husband in Aiken, SC.
My Thoughts
The Seahorse Trade is another addition to the Nikki Latrelle Racing Mystery series. I had not read any of the series at all and I am always a bit reluctant to start a series after the 1st or 2nd book. I always feel that I will lose part of who the main character is. I did not feel this way at all. From the first sentence on the plot takes off. A story about horse racing from the stables to the winner's circle. Throw a few murders into the mix and you have a story well worth the read. From reading the bio of Sasscer Hill, it is very recognizable that she knows what she is writing about. Believable characters, a great murder mystery and a lesson in horse racing, all rolled into a very readable book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
I received a copy of this bound galley from Westwind Publishing and was not monetarily compensated for my review.
No comments:
Post a Comment