Spokane, Washington 1896

Smart and sassy bookkeeper China Bohannon is a career woman who’d rather sleuth than type. With her uncle, Montgomery Howe, and her heart’s desire, Gratton Doyle, attempting to keep the peace at the Corbin Park racetrack, China oversees the Doyle & Howe office.

On the second day of the meet, a fourteen-year-old girl shows up at the office seeking the detectives’ help in a case of what she says is murder. Neva Sue O’Dell’s jockey brother has been killed during a race, the horse he was riding the dead-on derby favorite lamed. Neva claims her mother and grandfather are involved, having been paid a lot of money to rig the race. Who paid them? Neva doesn’t know, but she wants China to find out and somehow bring those who harmed her brother to their rightful end.