|
|
|
1.
|
|
Ex-amateur boxer and failed advertising account executive Jack Doyle, hero of Blind Switch, returns to the world of thoroughbred horse racing at a suburban Chicago track in this new thriller by the author of award-winning Riders Down. With the help of furrier-to-the-mob Moe Kellman, Doyle is hired as publicity director at Monee Park, a struggling suburban Chicago track owned by heiress Celia McCann. Celia is fighting to keep the business afloat while awaiting passage of a law allowing the introduction of lucrative video slot machines at Monee Park. Meanwhile, she is under pressure from her co-heir and cousin, Niall Hanratty, to close the track and sell the valuable property to real estate developers. Working hard to convince Celia to sell are a pair of hired thugs from Chicago s Canaryville neighborhood. Celia, whose husband is afflicted with ALS, is determined to maintain the business inherited from her beloved uncle Jim Joyce. The exploits of star sprinter Rambling Rosie help Celia s cause, as do the efforts of the redoubtable Doyle, again a somewhat reluctant knight errant who rises to the occasion when needed. Written from an insider s viewpoint, and featuring a robust cast of offbeat characters, Close Call provides entertaining insight into the unique world of American horse racing with a climax as exciting as a Derby photo finish....
|
|
2.
|
|
No one really notices that a fix may be in until Matt O'Connor, a Chicago-based columnist for a national racing newspaper, gets a call from Moe Kellman, a horse-owning acquaintance. Kellmans question for Matt: Was the death of ninety-two-year-old Bernard Glockner, Chicago's oldest active bookmaker, suicide or murder? Glockner was Kellman's late uncle and Kellman, a man not unfamiliar with the Chicago mob, wants Matt to check it out.Matt quickly comes to believe that the fate of the bookie is tied to a series of races whose outcomes have been manipulated. His quest is aided by horse trainer Maggie Collins and Dave Zimmer, a professional gambler known as The Fount for his reputation as an encyclopedic source of information. Eventually, going as far afield as Las Vegas and Madison, Wisconsin, they fix their sights on a brilliant sociopath. But why would this psycho have plotted a race-fixing scheme? Spiced with the kind of lively language that marked Blind Switch, the author's debut novel (2004), Riders Down offers striking insights into the world of horse racing and the possibilities of its corruption. ...
|
|
3.
|
|
Ex-amateur boxer and failed advertising account executive Jack Doyle, hero of Blind Switch, returns to the world of thoroughbred horse racing at a suburban Chicago track in this new thriller by the author of award-winning Riders Down. With the help of furrier-to-the-mob Moe Kellman, Doyle is hired as publicity director at Monee Park, a struggling suburban Chicago track owned by heiress Celia McCann. Celia is fighting to keep the business afloat while awaiting passage of a law allowing the introduction of lucrative video slot machines at Monee Park. Meanwhile, she is under pressure from her co-heir and cousin, Niall Hanratty, to close the track and sell the valuable property to real estate developers. Working hard to convince Celia to sell are a pair of hired thugs from Chicagoas Canaryville neighborhood. Celia, whose husband is afflicted with ALS, is determined to maintain the business inherited from her beloved uncle Jim Joyce. The exploits of star sprinter Rambling Rosie help Celiaas cause, as do the efforts of the redoubtable Doyle, again a somewhat reluctant knight errant who rises to the occasion when needed. Written from an insideras viewpoint, and featuring a robust cast of offbeat characters, Close Call provides entertaining insight into the unique world of American horse racing with a climax as exciting as a Derby photo finish. ...
|
|
