Scasscer Hill--The Dark Side of Town

DEBORAH CROMBIE:Anyone who knows me can tell you how much I love horse racing--and especially books about horse racing! I'm so tickled to have discovered Sasscer Hill. Her books take you straight to the track, with the sights, sounds, smells, and the visceral feel of racing. Add in a high-stakes mystery and you've got a sure bet. (Sorry, I couldn't resist...)

So, we all want to know where she got the ideas for her new Fia McKee series. Here's the latest, THE DARK SIDE OF TOWN, set in Saratoga during racing season.

SASSCER HILL: Has inspiration from an agent, friend, or editor ever helped you create a series or story? How about a spark of insight from a law enforcement contact or medical professional?

Back in my other life, when I raised and owned racehorses, I’d heard about the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau (TRPB). I even had a friend who worked undercover for this agency that protects the integrity of horse racing. But it wasn’t until my literary agent brainstormed with me, that I created TRPB agent, Fia McKee.

I loved writing this two-book series! Horses, scoundrels, danger, adrenaline, a dash of sex, and a child in jeopardy with a happy ending. What’s not to like? 

As mystery writers we often meet the most amazing people. Sometimes these folks provide a bolt of inspiration or sneak right into our novel as a great new character. Have you met someone who stirred your imagination or provided you with a gut punch that screams, “Yes! This is just what the novel needs!

While writing the first in the “Fia McKee”series, FLAMINGO ROAD, I researched the drug Demorphin. A painkiller up to 100 times stronger than morphine, it’s made from a peptide found on the skin of South American tree frogs. 

It was used on racehorses until (thank God) pharmacologists created an identifying blood test. But what if some evil person found a new, unknown drug that worked like Demorphin?

I brought this up during a phone conversation with Craig Stevens, Ph. D., professor of pharmacology at Oklahoma State University. Stevens was involved in the race to test for this heinous drug when the Demorphin scandal first broke at Remington Park racetrack in Oklahoma City. He was a delightful voice on the phone–eager to talk, great sense of humor, and smart as a whip. He was fascinated to hear I was using a Demorphin-like drug in a race track thriller. We ended up discussing Breaking Bad, a show we both adored, and how the character Jesse was forced to cook methamphetamine.

Stevens said, “You should have a chemist in our book!”

I almost yelled into the phone, “You’re right! I need a chemist!” And my favorite subplot was born, adding a nice layer to FLAMINGO ROAD.

Another “aha” occurred while interviewing TRPB president, Frank Fabian. He was concerned about young jockeys brought up from South America. These boys don’t speak English and are often kept isolated in rental homes with other Spanish speaking riders. They are brought to the US by South American jockey agents, who control them and may threaten to harm family members back home if these boys don’t do as they’re told. 

Fabian asked me, “If these agents tell a jockey to make sure the favorite horse loses, guess what happens?”

OMG, I thought, this is terrible! I must use it. Following the journalist rule, “if it bleeds, it leads, I worked this into the first chapter of THE DARK SIDE OF TOWN which debuts on April 17.

Have any of you had a lightning bolt experience like this? If so, I’d love to hear about it.

Information and buy links for the award winning Fia McKee series and all of Hill’s multiple award nominated novels can be found here:  https://www.sasscerhill.com/books

Visit Sasscer on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/SasscerHill/

THE DARK SIDE OF TOWN is out today, but I was lucky enough to have a sneak peek, and it's a terrific read. 

REDs, tell us about your "aha" moments, and readers, stop in to chat with Sasscer and find out more about Fia McKee.

Meeting Your Fences

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:   Did you see the 60 Minutes story on the Maryland Cup? And the crazy devoted talented brilliant riders who gallop four miles over fencers and water hazards and who knows what else at breakneck (oops) speeds on gorgeous horses? 

Yeah, the fabulous Sasscer Hill does stuff like that, and I cannot wait to talk to her about it at Malice.

She’s got a brand new mystery set in horse racing world, FLAMINGO ROAD, just brand new from St. Martin’s. And, dear Reds, Sasscer is about to see that the course of a book tour is almost as hazardous as a cross country steeplechase. In fact, it may be exactly the same thing.

 THE UPTOWN BOOK SIGNING

                              By Sasscer Hill

It’s a cold March afternoon and pouring as my plane skids to a halt on LaGuardia’s runway. I have arrived for the first book signing for Flamingo Road, three weeks prior to its April 18 pub date.

I rush to the baggage area, relieved to see my bag circling toward me. It has the outfit for my event at the posh ladies’ club in Manhattan where I have miraculously landed this gig. I manhandle the bag off the carousel, grab the handle, extend it, and begin marching. Except, the bag is immobile on the floor, and I am holding an unattached handle in my hand.

  

Have I just said the F word? Was it loud enough to be heard? If you’ve ever suffered an experience like this, did a four-letter word escape your lips?

This won’t do, I admonish myself, remembering the perfect, hand-written letter I received from the club announcing cell phones may not be used inside, and absolutely no photos may be taken, ever. It advised that I must not reveal the name of the club when mentioning the event on social media. A whole new meaning for “private” club.

 

I arrive at my sister’s apartment a little wet and looking like I’ve just gone ten rounds with my suitcase. The next day, as we arrive at the club, it’s still raining. I remove my rubber boots and slip on my suede Sacha London three-inch pumps. Fortified with fashion and makeup, I meet the ladies. I have never seen so many Gucci shoes and Chanel Suits outside the September issue of Vogue.

The ladies are charming, educated, and talk of their latest travels and the jewelry they bought in South America the previous month. We are having English tea and beautifully arranged pastries. I tell the head lady that I would kill for a Diet Coke and she rustles one up. Soon I’m at the podium to speak.

I go inside myself, focusing like I used to do when I’d ride in a steeplechase race. I meet my fences––which today are bullet points on a sheet of paper––and I don’t falter. Women are leaning forward, listening to every word, no one is whispering, there is perfect silence, and I know I’m winning. At the book signing, I sell out.

Have any of you experienced a recalcitrant suitcase, or wealth intimidation? How do you find your inner strength?

HANK: Heck with inner strength. I want to hear about a club that is so private you can't even talk about it.  

But WHY does something always go wrong in  situations like that? At the worst possible time? How does it know?

At least we can't get last-second runs in our stockings anymore! 

Sasscer, you are fabulous!

Author Sasscer Hill was involved in horse racing as an amateur jockey and racehorse breeder for most of her life. She sets her novels against a background of big money, gambling, and horse racing, and her mystery and suspense thrillers have received multiple award nominations.

Sasscer provided the Kirkus Review, which, she says, provides the most accurate synopsis of Flamingo Road that’s been written.

“The dark and dirty underbelly of horse racing is exposed when a Baltimore cop goes to visit relatives in Florida. Internal Affairs has been very interested in Fia McKee ever since she shot and killed the man who was choking Shyra Darnell, a hot walker at Pimlico who's so afraid of someone that she refuses to answer any questions. 

When Fia's beloved father, a racehorse trainer, was murdered five years earlier, Fia joined the police and has never given up on his case, which has now turned very cold. Put on leave, she answers a call for help from her brother, Patrick, whose wife has walked out and left him with a horse-crazy teen. Someone's been slaughtering people's horses for meat, and when Cody, her niece Jilly's gelding, becomes a victim, Fia gets mad and plots to get even. 

The night of the gelding's death, she meets a man named Zanin who runs the Protect the Animals League and is trying to stop the carnage. Zanin is sure the guilty party is a Cuban-American who lives in the dangerous and lawless area known as the C-Nine Basin, but no one's been able to prove that he's involved. Meantime, 

Fia learns that her problems back home may go away if she agrees to go undercover for the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau at Florida's Gulfstream Park, where horses that shouldn't be winning are suddenly showing amazing talent. Fia eases into a job as an exercise rider for an honest trainer while trying to discover what new, so far undetectable, drug is turning ordinary horses into superstars. Hill boasts knowledge of horses and the very real problems in horse racing that fill this sound mystery with thrills and hair-raising action from first to last.”—Kirkus