The Significant Seven (Jack Doyle Mysteries) [Hardcover]

John McEvoy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2010 | Series: Jack Doyle Mysteries

Seven lifelong friends and racing fans from their student days at the University of Wisconsin strike it lucky at Saratoga Race Track when they combine to win a plus million dollar Pick Six. They subsequently use some of those profits to buy race horses, one of which, The Badger Express, turns out to be a sensational runner, stallion, and money maker. Seven years later, the men become targets of a professional assassin, an ex-Navy SEAL and Iraq private security guard named Orth. They begin dying, one by one. Jack Doyle returns to the race track, volunteering to aid FBI agents in a search for criminals fixing races. Doyle then becomes involved in protecting Rene Rison, the favored daughter of the Significant Seven’s leader Arnie Rison. Jack Doyle, as always irreverent, observant, opinionated, sometimes mistaken but always persistent, eventually manages to find answers to the questions of who is fixing the races and who is having members of the Significant Seven killed off.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In McEvoy's fine fourth horse racing mystery (after 2008's Close Call), FBI agents persuade reluctant sleuth Jack Doyle to work undercover for a Chicago trainer to discover the culprits fixing races by sponging the favorite, an ugly practice that deprives the horse of enough oxygen to race effectively. Interwoven is the feel-good story of the Significant Seven—seven middle-aged friends who parlayed a huge pari-mutuel win into a small but successful racing syndicate thanks to the racing and stud career of a horse named the Badger Express. Seven years after their initial win, a pair of trained killers, both ex-navy SEALs, begin systematically eliminating the syndicate members. When Jack becomes suspicious about their deaths, he also becomes a target. McEvoy is a racing expert whose knowledge permeates the pages, and, like any good tout, he's full of amusing stories about horses, bettors, and trackmen. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

McEvoy’s third horseracing thriller starring Jack Doyle again nails the track milieu, although this time the mystery elements fall a little flat. Doyle, working with the FBI to identify who is “sponging” horses (inserting sponges into Thoroughbreds’ nostrils to impede breathing), stumbles into an even-bigger case: the systematic murder of the seven co-owners of a champion horse now earning millions at stud. Both the sponger and the person behind the murders are apparent virtually from their first appearances, but horseracing fans will still find much to enjoy. McEvoy, a former Daily Racing Form columnist, knows the racetrack intimately, and his insider details will keep racing fans turning pages. --Bill Ott

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 286 pages
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press; First Edition edition (April 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590587057
• ISBN-13: 978-1590587058
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,726,361 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine murder mystery evolves, recommended for any mystery collection, July 18, 2010

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Significant Seven (Jack Doyle Mysteries) (Hardcover)

The Significant Seven provides a fine Jack Doyle mystery and is set in 2002, when seven friends get together for horse racing - and hit the jackpot. When their leader convinces them to use some of their largess to buy race horses - where they get lucky again - trouble reaches years later into 2009, when members of the group are being murdered. A fine murder mystery evolves, recommended for any mystery collection!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dick Francis--Move Over, May 2, 2010

By 

Joan Colby (Elgin, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Significant Seven (Jack Doyle Mysteries) (Hardcover)

"The Significant Seven" is John McEvoy's third racing mystery featuring his iconoclastic hero Jack Doyle. Doyle was introduced in McEvoy's first book "Blind Switch" and returned in "Close Call" where he helped save a struggling racetrack from extinction. Now he's back recruited to go undercover at the track to discover who is sponging horses to fix races.

An alternate plot follows the fortunes of seven college friends who hit a big Pick Six at Saratoga and used their lucre to enable a lifelong dream of racehorse ownership. The guys luck out again purchasing a horse they name The Badger Express who goes on to win over $3 million for their stable named "The Significant Seven." After an injury, The Badger Express is retired to stud and his owners sign an agreement that as each individual dies all the stallion's earnings as a sire will accrue to the syndicate . This sets up a scenario for suspicious deaths and Doyle becomes concerned as one after another the members die unexpectedly. Add in a couple of ex Navy-Seal Blackwater mercenary types and the plots thicken.

McEvoy cleverly combines plots and presents chapters fluctuating from past to present to heighten suspense. His expertise in all things racehorse stems from his long-time career as Midwest editor of the Daily Racing Form. For local readers, McEvoy includes some "inside jabs" -if you are involved in racing here, you may find a character named similarly to yourself which adds to the fun.

Every one of McEvoy's mysteries deals with true life situations--the killing of horses for insurance, race fixing, a track hard put to compete with the casinos, the lucky winners of big pots, the sponging of horses--an old time ploy recently revived, and more. Apart from the mystery aspect, McEvoy's book includes various vignettes that illustrate the nature of racetrack life and the characters that inhabit it; these insights frequently raise "The Significant Seven" above the level of thriller and into the realm of documentary.

While Dick Francis' notable mysteries focused on steeplechase racing in Europe, McEvoy's series is centered in the often gritty world of American flat racing. With Francis sadly deceased, McEvoy is a fine heir to the tradition of suspenseful, accurate and crisp writing that made the former's books best sellers. McEvoy deserves no less. Critics have already bestowed accolades on the series naming "Riders Down" (another racing mystery with a different protagonist) as winner of the 2008 Ben Franklin Award.


McEvoy who resides in Evanston, Illinois is also the author of five non-fiction books on thoroughbred racing including the award-winning "Great Horse Racing Mysteries."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exhilarating thriller, April 6, 2010

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Significant Seven (Jack Doyle Mysteries) (Hardcover)

In Chicago FBI agents Karen Engel and Damon Tirabassi ask Jack Doyle to help them work a cruel case of animal brutality to fix races at nearby Heartland Downs. They explain a new form of "sponging" has occurred in which a sponge placed in a horse's nasal passage to cut off half of the oxygen flow prevents an odds on favorite from running a solid race. Though they do not have his lower anatomy like they did when they used him before, Jack agrees to go undercover at Heartland.

Back in 2002, The Significant Seven, who met as students at the U of Wisconsin three decades earlier, won the Pick Six and use their winnings to buy racing horses. They have local success thanks to Badger Express. As Jack is undercover at Heartland, professional killers are assassinating the Significant Seven one at a time, but supplement their hit list with Jack whose investigation crosses over.

This is an exhilarating thriller as Jack works a cruelty to animals betting fix case, which leads him to a serial killer investigation. The story line is faster than Secretariat ran the Belmont as Jack finds himself in several Close Call predicaments. Mystery fans especially those who enjoy the Sport of Kings will appreciate this entry and the series as John McEvoy enhances the whodunit with horse racing tales.

Harriet Klausner