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BARREL RACING CAN BE DANGEROUS—
EVEN DEADLY
"...full of the customary horse facts and well-rounded characters.... [Gail is] a likable heroine readers—horse lovers or not—will continue to seek out." —Publishers Weekly
Gail McCarthy, an equine veterinarian on maternity leave, witnesses the death of her neighbor Lindee Stone, a famous barrel-racing trainer. Could the inexplicable “horse wreck
turn out to be a cleverly plotted murder?
Chasing Cans (a horseman’s term for barrel racing, and the author’s metaphor for meaningless pursuits) features all the accurate western horse background that Laura Crum is known for, plus a fast-paced plot and a thrilling horseback climax. The tenth book in the beloved series about Gail McCarthy is also a portrait of a woman making the challenging transition from her full-time career as a horse vet to full-time mother—in a graceful and positive, yet realistic way.
At home for the moment with her year-old baby, Gail has not forgotten her veterinarian’s knowledge nor her passion for delving for truth and righting wrongs. When a mysterious series of seeming accidents occurs at a nearby barrel-racing training establishment, Gail’s detective friend Jeri asks for her help in understanding the people and activities involved. For her trouble, Gail could become the next victim. And her horsemanship skills might not save her in a race against a desperate villain with a reason to want her silenced forever. As a bonus to readers, the designer of Chasing Cans has placed a tiny image of a running horse on the upper, outer corner of each page. When riffled by the reader’s thumb, they produce a flip-book effect of a horse in motion: a true “running head,” so to speak.
Laura Crum, a fourth-generation Santa Cruz County resident, has owned and trained horse for over thirty years. She lives in the hills near California’s Monterey Bay with her family and a large menagerie. Crum has written ten books about Santa Cruz equine veterinarian Gail McCarthy.
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