Detective Fiction, Animals - Fiction, Women Detectives - Fiction, Occupations - Fiction, Other Mystery Categories
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Overview
In Laura Crum's fourth book featuring veterinarian Gail McCarthy, the amateur sleuth finds herself involved in her most personally challenging mystery yet. Gail is watching a roping event when one horse mysteriously goes down. Its leg broken, the animal must be put to sleep. When a second accident occurs moments later and another horse is seriously injured, Gail begins to question the coincidence. Gail's fears are confirmed when an old friend named Lisa, the daughter of the man on whose property the accidents occurred, shows up and begs for her help. Lisa fears a conspiracy to sabotage her father's business, and points to several likely suspects. There is a group of angry animal-rights protesters who have been picketing the establishment. There is Lisa's bitter ex-husband, who seems determined to have her back, and there are others, some with obvious, if farfetched, motives.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Central California horse veterinarian Gail McCarthy is embroiled in an unsuspenseful conspiracy in her fourth escapade (after Roughstock, 1997). When Gail is required to put down a horse injured during a roping event, she renews her acquaintance with old high-school chum Lisa Bennett and her family. Lisa asks Gail to help find the person who's been plaguing her family with such dirty tricks as digging and disguising a hole in the middle of the roping arena where the horse fell, poisoning a colt and nearly running down her father, Glen, with a tractor. Gail's investigation turns up a list of likely suspects with grudges against Glen: his son Tim, who has been given too little responsibility on the ranch; Lisa's vengeful former husband; a spiteful rancher whose wife is rumored to be having an affair with Glen; and Glen's petulant second wife. In between her moments of sleuthing, Gail contends with her stressful veterinarian practice and her uneven romance with an older, married cowboy. Serving only to advance Gail's private life, this series entry will disappoint all but die-hard fans. (Sept.)Kirkus Reviews
Roped ( Sept. 11; 240 pp.; 0-312-19325-4): Warning for horse-lovers: Equine casualties outnumber the human kind when veterinarian Gail McCarthy, in her fourth case (Roughstock, 1997, etc.), looks into her school friend Lisa Bennett's fears that a series of accidents to horses entered in roping events aren't so accidental.Book Details
Published
September 1, 1998
Publisher
Thomas Dunne Books
Pages
229
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780312193256