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...

Jack Doyle has a knack for ferreting out dangerous situations, as shown in McEvoy;s appealing fifth mystery featuring the Chicago-based ex-boxer and horse racing enthusiast (after 2012;s Photo Finish). Retired race horses are often donated to vet schools for research. When someone starts killing the animals to keep them from being exploited, two FBI agents ask Doyle to use his racing contacts to seek leads. That chore doesn;t keep Doyle from jetting to Dublin, Ireland, to see jockey Mickey Sheehan win a major award. In Dublin, Sheila Hanratty asks him to help her bookmaker husband, Niall, who;s had several suspicious accidents recently. Doyle also tangles with a wealthy social media entrepreneur who;s determined to force an elderly couple to sell him their prized horse. On top of all that, Harvey Rexroth, a crook Doyle help put in prison, is arranging to have him killed. McEvoy deftly manages his busy plot while liberally spicing it with intriguing racing stories.