Murder at the Racetrack: Original Tales of Mystery and Mayhem Down the Final Stretch from Today's Great Writers [Paperback]

Otto Penzler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2006

Lawrence Block, in Keller by a Nose," asks what obsession holds more hazards than betting on the ponies. The answer will surprise you...Max Allan Collins's "That Kind of Nag" proves that it's bad to play the wrong horse, but worse to pick the wrong woman..."The Great, the Good and the Not-So-Good" by H.R.F. Keating warns against old English ladies at the racecourse...Joyce Carol Oates shows how a young woman teams to trust a prize stallion more than her violent lover in "Meadowlands"...and Scott Wolven's "Pinwheel" offers a Japanese lesson in flying horses and honor among thieves."--BOOK JACKET.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Penzler's third sports-themed anthology (after Murder at the Foul Line) is slow out of the gate but soon hits its stride. The opener, "Keller by a Nose," Lawrence Block's confused mix of stamp collecting and off-track betting, is followed by Ken Bruen's "The Return of the Thin White Dude... Screaming," a sordid tale of drugs and gambling. Things begin to get on track with Jan Burke's "Zuppa Inglese," in which intrigue surrounds the apparent suicide of a horse owner and restaurateur whose precocious son falls victim to an amateurish kidnap plot. "Yellow Mama's Long Weekend" by Lorenzo Carcaterra explores the sensitive relationship between a lovable steed and his debt-ridden trainer. Gambling addiction figures in Max Collins's taut South Side Chicago procedural "That Kind of Nag." Tension builds before the big race in Joyce Carol Oates's "Meadowlands," in which glamour-boy Fritzi Czechi sees betting on horses not as gambling but "an art." Other notable contributors include Thomas H. Cook, Michelle Martinez and Scott Wolven. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Not all of the 13 racetrack mysteries that Penzler has chosen include a murder, and a few of them scarcely include a racetrack. Each contains generous portions of deceit, double-dealing, and treachery, however, and those ingredients will entice readers who like their mysteries down and dirty. In Lorenzo Carcaterra's Runyonesque "Yellow Mama's Long Weekend," a small-time trainer with a weakness for booze and gambling double-crosses a race-fixing mobster and walks away--on unbroken legs--with the score of a lifetime. In Joyce Carol Oates' searing "Meadowlands," a successful horse owner with a secret agenda takes his love-struck girlfriend to the track, where an idyllic afternoon turns suddenly and unimaginably horrific. And in Julie Smith's cleverly plotted "Hotwalker," a former veterinarian whose husband's life was shattered by a hoodlum's violence exacts an ingenious revenge. Not every story is a jewel, but the big majority will fill an idle hour with delicious suspense, and a few, such as Oates' contribution, will stay with readers for a very long time. Dennis Dodge
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press (April 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446697656
• ISBN-13: 978-0446697651
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,309,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I was sold..., April 25, 2006

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Dave Schwinghammer "Dave Schwinghammer" (Little Falls, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Murder at the Racetrack: Original Tales of Mystery and Mayhem Down the Final Stretch from Today's Great Writers (Hardcover)

The title is a bit misleading in that not all of the stories are set at the racetrack and not all of the stories deal with murder. For instance, "The Hustle" by Pat Jordan is about a senior citizen conman who pulls one too many hustles. However, it's still one of the best stories in the anthology. I was really impressed since I was familiar with Jordan's FALSE SPRING about a baseball pitcher's travails in the minor leagues and hadn't thought of him as a fiction writer.

I'm addicted to the nags, but my real reason for reading this anthology was my good luck in finding new writers via the short story collection route (See TRANSGRESSIONS ed. Ed McBain). Otto Penzler, the editor, also snagged Joyce Carol Oates as a contributor. I've always felt she was a better short story writer than a novelist, and "Meadowlands" seems to prove my contention. Lawrence Block also contributed one of his Keller yarns. Keller has a contract on one of the jockeys if a certain horse doesn't win.

Despite the inclusion of these two heavyweights, the most impressive of these authors may be Ken Bruen whose "Return of the Thin White Dude...Screaming" enticed me to purchase one of his novels. He's an Irish writer writing about New York, and the thin white dude is David Bowie. Penzler describes his work as "among the darkest in the history of crime fiction." I love noir so I'm game.

I also invested in Michele Martinez's MOST WANTED after reading "The Long Shot." A comparison to Raymond Chandler seems fitting in this case. Michele is also a former federal prosecutor in New York City prosecuting drug gangs, so she ought to know her stuff.

There are a few clunkers, such as the too long and predictable "Zuppe Inglese" by Jan Burke and the short and choppy "Pinwheel" by Scott Wolven, but as a whole, this anthology is well worth your money.