Barn Politics

Horses are dying in Hunt Country and Jordan Pascoe, fresh out of vet school, is roped into an investigation. Ruth Wallace, an ambitious claims adjuster, smells a scam and knows exposing fraud could be her key to advancement in an insurance company out over a million in claims. She requires discretion and the young doctor can be controlled with the threat of exposure: help, and keep it quiet, or she informs the Board he continues to gamble on races and violate probation. Pascoe digs into the baffling cases and a member of the privileged horsey set is murdered. Convinced of a connection, he asks tough questions and unsettles a society bent on knowing their neighbors' secrets and holding tight to their own. Pascoe, ill-suited for intrigue, discovers treachery in the shadow of the Blue Ridge and is soon fighting to protect his reputation, his career, and when he uncovers the truth, his life. Barn Politics is a mystery novel that combines qualities of House and All Creatures Great and Small, though the countryside is less English and much more dangerous.