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Murder in the Winner’s Circle – A Harness Racing Mystery
M.J. Evans’s Murder in the Winner’s Circle is an inviting mystery steeped in the sights, sounds, routines, and rivalries of harness racing. Newlywed horsewoman and former insurance investigator Callie is settling back into life at Liberty Racetrack when flamboyant owner Alfred Wellington collapses during his victory celebration. His death opens the gate on a crowded field of suspects, including an unhappy wife, a secretive trainer, a resentful former spouse, and a business partner whose polished manner hides serious trouble. Evans gives the investigation a distinctive setting, making the barns, sulkies, training sessions, and race-day rituals part of the story’s identity rather than simple background.
Callie is an easy character to spend time with because her curiosity grows naturally from compassion. She notices the small shifts in expression and behavior that other people overlook, but she’s also willing to question her own assumptions. Her marriage to reporter Paul Coffman adds warmth and momentum, since their relationship feels like a genuine partnership rather than a romance placed beside the mystery. Detective Rita Kowalski brings another strong presence to the investigation, and the three characters work together with a satisfying blend of professional experience, personal loyalty, and persistent curiosity.
The mystery builds through layered motives, financial secrets, romantic betrayals, and carefully planted details. Evans keeps several suspects plausible while gradually connecting Alfred’s poisoning to a larger chain of deception and violence. The solution rewards attention, especially when an apparently casual remark becomes the clue that shifts the entire investigation. There’s plenty of danger in the final stretch, but the suspense remains grounded in character, giving the revelations emotional weight beyond the mechanics of identifying a killer.
What lingers most is the book’s affection for horses and the people whose lives revolve around them. The racing sequences have energy, the barn scenes feel comfortable and specific, and Callie’s bond with Sunny gives the novel an emotional center that carries through the mystery and into the satisfying epilogue. Murder in the Winner’s Circle delivers a clever crime, a memorable sporting world, and characters whose company feels as welcome as a familiar barn at sunrise.
The Green Monster
Fire at the Track follows an insurance investigator who goes undercover at a harness track after a fire that kills 28 racehorses and uncovers a conspiracy that runs deeper than money. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Often, I get my ideas for a book from my readers. (The Sand Pounder and Coal Dust and Dreams were both sent to me by readers.)
However, this book came to me in a unique way. I was visiting with a woman who was sitting next to me on an airplane. She asked me what I did. I told her I was an author and that most of my books were about horses. After giving her a little more detail about my “Horses in History” series, she said, “I know what your next book needs to be!” She then told me about a fire at a harness racing track in Pennsylvania in 2001. She said the cause of the fire has never been determined, but that the skuttlebutt in the harness racing community was that it had been set by an owner whose horse went lame and he wanted to collect the insurance money.
As soon as I got home, I googled the fire. Sure enough, it had never been solved. Fire at the Track was born!
The emotional connection between people and horses is central to the story. How did your own experience shape that portrayal?
I am a horsewoman, born with manure in my blood! Horses have always been a big part of my life and will be until I die. However, I am a hunter/jumper and dressage rider. I have never been around harness racing beyond watching one race in upstate New York many years ago. So, I needed help from harness racers to make sure I was getting all the little details about harness racing correct.
The mystery explores insurance fraud, debt, and desperation. What interested you about these motivations?
It just seemed that these would be the logical motivations for an arsonist. But don’t forget, the woman who started the fire was possessed by the green monster called “jealousy.”
What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?
My next book is a continuation of the Harness Racing Mysteries with Callie Oaks. It will be out in October or November. The title is: Murder in the Winner’s Circle.
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When a late night blaze destroys Barn 7 at Liberty Racetrack, killing twenty-eight prized Standardbred horses, authorities rule it arson. In a sport driven by money, rivalry, and reputation, suspicion spreads fast.
Insurance investigator Callie Oaks knows the fire wasn’t random. A half-million-dollar policy. Crushing debt. Fractured marriages. Gambling ties. And too many people with something to lose.
Raised in the harness racing world, Callie goes undercover at the track, posing as an exercise driver to investigate the suspicious insurance claims. As she digs into the tight-knit backstretch community, she uncovers secrets worth killing for.
Someone set the fire.
Someone profited.
And when Callie gets too close to the truth, she becomes the next target.
Perfect for readers who love:
Horse racing mysteries
Arson investigations
Small-town crime fiction
Female amateur sleuth / insurance investigator thrillers
Suspense with authentic equestrian detail
Fire at the Track is a fast-paced mystery thriller packed with insider racing drama, financial deception, and high-stakes suspense.
At Liberty Racetrack, everyone has a secret.
And one of them is a killer.
Fire at the Track – A Harness Racing Mystery
Fire at the Track by M.J. Evans is a harness racing mystery built around a barn fire that kills twenty-eight horses and shakes the Liberty Racetrack community to its core. The book opens with the thrill of the sport, especially the rise of Eat My Dust, then quickly turns that excitement into grief, suspicion, and an insurance investigation. At its center is Callie Oaks, an investigator with real horse-world experience, who goes undercover at the track to find out whether the fire was an accident, negligence, or something far more deliberate.
What makes the book work best is how strongly it understands the emotional world of horse people. The horses aren’t background decoration. They’re the reason everyone is there, and the reason the crime feels personal. The line “They were like family” captures the heart of the story in a simple way, because the loss in Barn 7 isn’t treated as just property damage. It’s a wound shared by owners, trainers, grooms, drivers, and even the night watchman who can’t forgive himself for saving only one horse.
Callie is an appealing lead because she’s capable without feeling slick or distant. Her undercover identity, Haylie Norr, gives the story a nice layer of tension, especially as she gets pulled back into the rhythm of barn life and into training the filly Sunny. The mystery moves through insurance fraud, gambling debts, grief, jealousy, and cover-ups, but it stays grounded in everyday racetrack details: feedings, stall assignments, vet records, training routines, and the politics of a tight community where everyone knows everyone else’s business.
The book also has a warm secondary thread in Callie’s connection with reporter Paul Coffman. Their relationship doesn’t take over the mystery, but it gives the story a softer place to land after some heavy material. By the end, when the investigation has exposed Tommy Valdez and Frank Morrison, and the track begins repairing both its safety systems and its sense of trust, the final stretch with Callie, Sunny, and Paul feels earned. The closing idea that survivors “get back in the sulky, gather the lines, and race toward whatever finish line waits ahead” fits the book’s steady, hopeful view of recovery.
Fire at the Track is a sincere, horse-centered mystery with a strong sense of place and a lot of affection for the harness racing world. It’s part crime story, part community drama, and part comeback story. The best parts are the ones where the book lets readers feel the barn, the track, the grief, and the bond between people and horses. It’s a conversational, accessible read for mystery fans, especially readers who like animals, racetrack settings, and stories where justice matters because the victims mattered.
Pages: 287 | ASIN : B0GMDMX3HY
