Detective Holly Jennings, and her partner Chad, have picked up a confusing murder: two jockeys found with their legs broken, shot dead, with carrots stuck in their mouths. The case goes cold -- but soon another horse racing bigwig is found dead with a carrot in his mouth as well.As the two police officers investigate, they are drawn deep in to not only horse racing itself, but the industry's home in Lexington, Kentucky. This is territory well-known to me as a former equestrian athlete, and I can tell you that author A.K. Alexander gets it right. She deals with racing's underbelly: performance enhancing drugs, painful treatments designed to make a fragile animal run faster ... all of it. She also looks at the people trying to improve the sport, and to rescue the horses themselves when their days on the track are done (Alexander's fictional Golden Hearts reminded me more than a little of the real-life Old Friends Equine Retirement facility).There are twists and turns all over the place, and the "whodunnit" is revealed slowly through a series of clues that don't detract from the end at all -- because not even the villain is quite whom he seems to be.Highly recommended for fans of racing and murder mysteries alike.(Review based on uncorrected advance proof.)
