by the author of both Agatha and Macavity Best First Awards, “Full Mortality.”
Ruled off Maryland’s Laurel Park racetrack, for a crime she had no part in, jockey Nikki Latrelle struggles to survive at a seedy training track, where a convicted murderer terrorizes a young Latina groom. Faced with clearing her name, the last thing Nikki needs is to get involved. But she’s never been one to stand by and watch somebody else be abused.
STEAMROLLER ( The first page)
The first time I exercised a racehorse at Dimsboro, I saw a man named Dirk Crane backhand his young Latina groom across the face.
I’d found work at the seedy Prince Georges County training center exercising low-level race horses for miscreants, who, like me, had been barred from the Maryland tracks. Even Rocky, the horse I rode that morning, had been ruled off due to “unruly behavior at the starting gate.”
Me? I’m Nikki Latrelle. My jockey’s license was temporarily suspended at Maryland’s Laurel Park race track pending an investigation into a murder I had no part in. Since the only thing I know how to do is ride, the suspension left me jobless and a heartbeat from penniless.
PRAISE FOR THE NIKKI LATRELLE SERIES
“First-time novelist Hill, herself a Maryland horse breeder, is a genuine find, writing smooth and vivid descriptive prose about racetrack characters and backstretch ambience that reek authenticity.” – Jon L. Breen. Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, February, 2011.
Ruled off Maryland’s Laurel Park racetrack, for a crime she had no part in, jockey Nikki Latrelle struggles to survive at a seedy training track, where a convicted murderer terrorizes a young Latina groom. Faced with clearing her name, the last thing Nikki needs is to get involved. But she’s never been one to stand by and watch somebody else be abused.
STEAMROLLER ( The first page)
The first time I exercised a racehorse at Dimsboro, I saw a man named Dirk Crane backhand his young Latina groom across the face.
I’d found work at the seedy Prince Georges County training center exercising low-level race horses for miscreants, who, like me, had been barred from the Maryland tracks. Even Rocky, the horse I rode that morning, had been ruled off due to “unruly behavior at the starting gate.”
Me? I’m Nikki Latrelle. My jockey’s license was temporarily suspended at Maryland’s Laurel Park race track pending an investigation into a murder I had no part in. Since the only thing I know how to do is ride, the suspension left me jobless and a heartbeat from penniless.
PRAISE FOR THE NIKKI LATRELLE SERIES
“First-time novelist Hill, herself a Maryland horse breeder, is a genuine find, writing smooth and vivid descriptive prose about racetrack characters and backstretch ambience that reek authenticity.” – Jon L. Breen. Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, February, 2011.
