Close Call

Praise for Close Call... "The author gets the details right, a rarity in racing fiction, while delivering all the suspense of a photo finish." -Booklist Ex-amateur boxer and failed advertising account executive Jack Doyle returns to the world of thoroughbred horse racing at a suburban Chicago track. With the help of furrier-to-the-mob Moe Kellman, Doyle is hired as publicity director at Monee Park-a struggling racetrack owned by heiress Celia McCann. Celia's husband is afflicted with Lou Gehrig's disease, and she is fighting to keep the business afloat while awaiting passage of a law allowing the introduction of lucrative video slot machines. She's determined to maintain the business inherited from her beloved uncle Jim Joyce. However, she is also under pressure from her co-heir and cousin, Niall Hanratty, to close the track and sell the valuable property to real estate developers. Niall will stop at nothing to convince Celia to sell, even hiring thugs from Chicago's Canaryville neighborhood to help persuade her. John McEvoy, former Midwest editor and senior correspondent for Daily Racing Form, is the author of several previously published nonfiction books on thoroughbred horse racing, including the award-winning Great Horse Racing Mysteries. He has also published a book of poetry. Close Call is his third novel, following Blind Switch and Riders Down, winner of the 2007 Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Mystery/Suspense. McEvoy lives in Illinois.