by Preston Holtry, Moonshine Cove Publishing, $13.99
Saratoga Racetrack, 1915. Like Tommy the Cork, Big Dan’s best years are behind him, yet that doesn’t stop Tommy from guiding the old campaigner through traffic on the backstretch. When the hole closes, the ensuing wreck leaves a jockey and two horses dead and big money lost on a sure thing. A mangled Tommy boards the next train west, seeking solace at a Franciscan mission in northern New Mexico. But bad debts get paid and, when friars discover The Cork’s mutilated body, local officials call in P.I. Morgan Westphal to track down the killer.
Fourth in the Morgan Westphal Mystery Series, The Good Thief aptly captures the historical detail and character of the early 1900s from the underbelly of New York to New Mexico’s rugged terrain.
— Vicki Ann Duraine
