by Ace Atkins
Part of Spenser, book 27
First published 2000
Spenser badly needs paying work when Walter Clive approaches him with an unusual case. Someone has been murdering racehorses at stables throughout the South, and Clive wants the Boston private investigator to travel to Georgia to protect his prized two-year-old, Hugger Mugger. The horse shows promise to become the next Secretariat, making him a valuable target. Clive runs Three Fillies Stables and has already hired security, but he wants Spenser's expertise overseeing the operation. Local Georgia law enforcement resents the outsider's involvement, but Spenser takes the job anyway. Beneath the polite surface of southern hospitality, he discovers simmering tensions within the racing community. The situation escalates when the mysterious attacker kills a person instead of a horse. Spenser realizes he has misjudged the entire Three Fillies organization and everyone connected to it. Now he must solve the case while protecting himself from whoever wants him gone.
Genres: suspense, mystery, crime, thriller, detective, action
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, investigative-journalism
Setting: Georgia, Boston
307 pages · Hardcover · G.P. Putnam's Sons/Penguin Putnam Inc.