Photo Finish: A Jack Doyle Mystery (Jack Doyle Series Book 5) by John McEvoy


Photo Finish: A Jack Doyle Mystery (Jack Doyle Series Book 5)
Title : Photo Finish: A Jack Doyle Mystery (Jack Doyle Series Book 5)
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : -
Language : English
Format Type : Kindle Edition
Number of Pages : 297
Publication : First published May 1, 2012

Chicago racetrack publicist Jack Doyle, former advertising man and amateur boxer, accepts the challenge of a new job in the world of thoroughbred horse racing—that of jockey’s agent. His client is a seventeen-year-old riding phenom from Ireland named Mickey Sheehan, who has decided to try her luck in the States. They prove to be an effective team until someone begins secretly administering dangerously illegal medications to horses, affecting race results.

In his quest to identify the culprit, the shrewd, irreverent, and always opinionated Doyle is aided by his old friend Moe Kellman, furrier-to-the-Mob; trainer Ralph Tenuta, himself the target of a blackmailer; and young veterinarian Ingrid McGuire, a greatly talented horse communicator. Plus Jack and Moe become co-owners of a talented, bargain-priced colt named Plotkin, who provides several thrills, not all of them welcome. The action moves from Chicago’s Heartland Downs to New York’s famed Saratoga Race Course, even stepping aboard Mob capo Fifi Bonadio’s lavish yacht in Chicago’s Belmont Harbor. Is that favor Jack agrees to do for Fifi going to get him killed, or will it be his persistent push for answers to the horse doping?

Mickey’s sibling rivalry with her occasionally race-manipulating brother Kieran, one of Ireland’s top jockeys, comes to a climax with Mickey aboard Plotkin in the million dollar Heartland Downs Futurity, while Doyle pursues two daunting challenges to his colorful career as an amateur investigator in the world of American racing.


Photo Finish: A Jack Doyle Mystery (Jack Doyle Series Book 5) Reviews


  • Avalon

    Racehorse mystery

    This book is full of suspense and intrigue. If you like reading Dick Francis, you will enjoy this author as similar style. It has you guessing all the way through the book with endearing characters. For racing fans, this is a must read

  • Joan Colby

    . This is McEvoy’s fourth racing mystery starring Jack Doyle. Doyle, who has had a checkered career ranging from boxer to ad man, finds various positions in the racing industry in this series. In Photo Finish, he is a jockey agent with one client, an Irish import named Mickey Shannon. Trainer Ralph Tenuda is beset by his horses being drugged. Veteranarian and horse communicator Ingrid McGuire has split up with alcoholic boyfriend and former partner, Eric (who is one of the baddies—McEvoy’s strategy is to reveal their identities to the reader while keeping his protagonist Doyle in the dark which creates tension as one pulls for Doyle to catch on). Various other subplots cast a spotlight on trackside happenings. The writing is brisk and engaging. Racing insiders will also enjoy allusion to actual folks, or slightly disguised variants. As a former editor of the Daily Racing Form, McEvoy is spot-on in capturing the microcosm of the racetrack.

  • Beverly

    ack Doyle undertakes a new job in the world of thoroughbred horse racing as a jockey’s agent. His client is a seventeen-year-old Irish feminine rider, Mickey Sheehan. They prove to be an effective team until someone administers illegal medications to horses. What follows is an average mystery, although it is nice to have a different venue, a race track.