Guest Post & Giveaway – Fire at the Track by M.J. Evans
Fire at the Track: A Harness Racing Mystery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Pennsylvania
Publisher : Dancing Horse Press
Publication date : April 21, 2026
Print length : 285 pages
Synopsis
Twenty-eight horses. One deadly fire. A racetrack hiding secrets.
When a late night blaze destroys Barn 7 at Liberty Racetrack, killing twenty eight prized Standardbred horses, authorities rule it arson. Insurance investigator Callie Oaks knows the fire wasn’t random. Raised in the harness racing world, Callie goes undercover at the track, posing as an exercise driver to investigate suspicious insurance claims. As she digs into the tight knit backstretch community, she uncovers secrets worth killing for. From the author of “Silver Charm,” “The Sand Pounder,” “Pinto,” and “The Stallion and His Peculiar Boy.”
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.
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Guest Post
Learning to Speak Harness Racing
By M.J. Evans
Horses come in all different sizes, shapes, and colors. So do the sports people enjoy participating in with them. I grew up riding on a three-day-eventing team through the Pony Clubs of America, and along the way, I learned everything that sport demanded — dressage, cross-country, stadium jumping, and all the horsemanship skills that go into keeping a horse sound and happy.
So, when I decided to write a mystery set at a harness racing track, I figured I already had a head start. The horse care, I could write with my eyes closed. Harness racing itself, though, was an entirely new world.
What kinds of sulkies are there, and how do they differ? What are the parts of a standardbred’s harness, and what does each one actually do? When does training begin for a young trotter or pacer, and what steps does a trainer walk a horse through before it ever sees a starting gate? What are the sport’s biggest races, and what does a horse have to do to qualify for one?
And then there was the whole matter of barn fires.
Let the research begin. I’ll admit right here that research is the most fun part of writing a novel — I get to learn something new and fascinating almost every day I sit down to work. Through mine, I learned that most barn fires trace back to electrical problems. Sometimes it’s what old-timers call “loving hands at home” wiring — a well-meaning but untrained repair job. Sometimes it’s mice chewing through insulation, or dust working its way into the motor of one of those box fans so many of us, myself included, hang in stalls to keep our horses comfortable in the summer heat. Spontaneous combustion from damp hay or manure piles is another major cause. And, unfortunately, sometimes it’s arson.
Then it was back to harness racing itself. Whenever I research a new topic, I buy books on it so I can take notes and highlight to my heart’s content. I started with a childhood favorite, Born to Trot by Marguerite Henry. From there, I picked up the book about the legendary Canadian standardbred Somebeachsomewhere, by Marjorie Simmins, and followed it with the biography of the great American standardbred Greyhound, by Cheryl Eriksen. I learned something essential from each one.
Books can only take you so far, though, so I turned to the people who actually live in this world day in and day out. One man in particular, Richard Stone, spent his entire working life on harness racing breeding and training farms. Now retired, he was generous enough to read every page of my manuscript and mark every place I’d gotten it wrong — which, in the early drafts, was more often than I’d like to admit.
Between the books, the research, and Richard’s patient corrections, I hope I’ve done the sport justice. My goal for Fire at the Track was to write something that would work for every kind of reader who might pick it up — the horse lovers, the harness racing insiders who’ll catch every detail I got right (and forgive me for the ones I didn’t), and the cozy mystery fans who just want a good whodunit set somewhere they’ve never been before.
Fire at the Track is available now from Dancing Horse Press.
About the Author
M.J. Evans is the award-winning author of twenty six published works spanning middle-grade, young adult, and adult fiction, as well as a selection of picture books. Her writing often explores themes centered around horses and equine fantasy, reflecting a lifelong passion for these remarkable animals. A graduate of Oregon State University and a former educator with experience teaching both middle and high school students, Ms. Evans brings both educational insight and storytelling flair to her work. She resides in beautiful Colorado with her husband, Tom, where they enjoy the company of their horses and Standard Poodle. She is the proud mother of five and grandmother of thirteen.
M.J. Evans was the recipient of the 2024 Colorado Authors League Lifetime Achievement Award.
Literary awards include: Chanticleer International Book Awards Readers’ Favorite International Awards Eric Hoffer Awards Nautilus Awards Literary Classics awards Literary Global Book Awards Feathered Quill Book Awards Purple Dragonfly Awards Royal Dragonfly Awards Page Turner Award Next Generation Award Global Book Awards CIPA Evvy Book Awards Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards Incipere Book Awards International Impact Book Awards Maincrest Media Book Awards Book Excellence Awards Mom’s Choice Awards
