A Stone's Throw

April 9, 2018
In Edgar-finalist Ziskin’s suspenseful sixth mystery featuring newspaper reporter Ellie Stone (after 2017’s Cast the First Stone), set in 1962, Ellie stumbles across two bodies, burned beyond recognition, while investigating a fire at an abandoned stud farm in upstate New York. Ellie’s best friend, the bearish Ron “Fadge” Fiorello, becomes her expert guide to the sometimes seamy world of horse racing, and, armed with her newfound knowledge, Ellie digs up information that convinces her the victims are jockey Johnny Dornan and his “date of the evening,” Micheline Charbonneau. She subsequently learns that Johnny, who threw a horse race nine years earlier, ended up on the wrong side of the mob. The carefully constructed plot unfolds in unexpected ways as tough, ambitious, and dogged Ellie follows clues in the horse-racing mecca of nearby Saratoga Springs. Ziskin keeps readers guessing every step of the way. Agent: William Reiss, John Hawkins & Assoc.

May 1, 2018
Upstate New York reporter Ellie Stone's trip to a burning barn takes her outside her comfort zone in more ways than one.Although Joshua Shaw made a name for himself back in the 1920s breeding and racing thoroughbreds, the Shaw family hasn't used Tempesta Farm for years, and Ellie's trip out there to cover a fire in one of the estate's 40 barns one morning in August 1962 might have proved a waste of time if her poking amid the embers hadn't disclosed two charred corpses. The victims seem well beyond identification, but the male has been shot, the female strangled, and the fire deliberately set. That's plenty to interest readers of the New Holland Republic and maybe even publisher Artie Short, who still finds it hard to take a girl reporter seriously. Sheriffs from two different counties take an interest in the case, but it's Ellie who digs up the leads that eventually identify the victims as Johnny Dornan, a jockey for Louis Fleischman's Harlequin stables, and Vivian McLaglen, whose ties to Johnny go back a long way through some dark patches. Also missing is Micheline Charbonneau, a lady of the evening whom Lou had hired to entertain Johnny on what turned out to be his last night on Earth. A note Johnny left scrawled in a newspaper left behind in his lodgings--"Robinson S Friday midnight"--promises further illumination and, indeed, turns out to hold the key to the case, but few readers will decipher its import before Ellie. Tested by both her dogged pursuit of a story with deep roots and her relationship with Virginia aristocrat Frederick Carsten Whitcomb III, whose socialite mother turns out to be as anti-Semitic as his blue-blooded buddies, Ellie comes up trumps.The detective work is unspectacular but conscientious, absorbing, and believable, and the unblinking heroine's clearheaded first-person narrative is never less than appealing.

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June 1, 2018

Newspaper reporter Ellie Stone watches when the barn at Tempesta, the abandoned horse stud farm, burns to the ground. Afterward, she's allowed to check out the remains of the building, only to encounter two dead bodies. While the original guess is they were a woman and an adolescent, Ellie questions whether the smaller one may have been a jockey, connecting the murder with the nearby Saratoga race track. Ellie's investigation leads her to the world of horse racing, gambling, and WASP high society. It's a news story that will stir up rumors from the past while revealing truths in Ellie's own heartbreaking life. The award-winning author of Heart of Stone combines the atmospheric environment of small-town newspaper journalism with the horse racing world of 1962. The lonely, well-developed Ellie is the conscience of this cinematic story that has a strong sense of place but in which the characters shine most. Aware of her weakness for men and drink, the complex and courageous Ellie skillfully uses others' shortcomings and strengths to her advantage as a reporter. VERDICT Richly detailed, with strong appeal for Ziskin's fans as well as admirers of Dick and Felix Francis.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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