Press

There are always news, updates, and exciting developments going on in my world. I’m excited to share them with you as they happen!

Great review for Betrayed in the Bluegrass:

BLUEGRASS STAINED RED IN RACETRACK NOVEL BY ST. LOUIS AUTHOR

“Fans of the first Harper thriller will flock to this recent follow-up — and come away hoping for a tale-telling trifecta.”

By Harry Levins, special to the Post-Dispatch

June 17, 2022

St. Louis’ own Virginia Slachman goes back to the track with Betrayed in the Bluegrass. This racetrack thriller follows up on the author’s Blood in the Bluegrass, published three years ago.

Slachman teaches writing at Washington University, so she practices what she teaches. She also carries a deep fondness for Thoroughbred horses. Her two specialties merge well in Betrayed in the Bluegrass, as they did in Blood in the Bluegrass.

Again, the heroine is Harper Hill, who breeds and trains Thoroughbreds down Kentucky way. Again, the plot centers on misconduct in Kentucky — murder, theft, animal-drugging and other outrages.

Heroine Harper insists on investigating the two brutal murders that open this tale, even though her loving and patient husband carries the badge of a police detective.

She shows up at the stables early each morning — partly to check on the horses and partly to sniff around for clues about who’s behind the bad doings. Her suspicion falls on a trainer imported from Britain, a thoroughly unlikeable Thoroughbred handler.

In the end, of course, Harper finds the killer. But the killer’s identity comes as a shock to Harper — and to the reader.

Author Slachman knows her way around horses, as does Harper. A sample:

“As she hefted the wheelbarrow filled with the end stalls’ droppings and soiled wheat straw bedding, she picked up the sharp smell of urine and loamy manure, reminded again that even the most mundane aspects of taking care of racehorses were just fine with her. As the time passed, she made her way from stall to stall, wondering who owned all the runners. She read a few stall plates: Dame Falona — ‘noseband,’ ‘blinkers (to breeze)’ and next to her: Tamerett — ‘draw reins,’ ‘shadow roll,’ ‘earplugs.’ Just the horse’s name and training gear.”

But if that sounds everyday, Slachman also throws in a few examples of the unusual. Here’s Harper’s take on a horse named Fleet Light:

“He was well made, yes, but the sweet disposition and soft eyes she’d picked up from him sometimes translated to not much heart on the track. Sometimes, she corrected herself, but certainly not always. And he was a bit on the smaller side. It took a whole package to make a star — heart, breeding, the right training, the physical chops, desire, a head for it … and luck.”

And here is Slachman’s take on Harper’s own trainer, an expert named Marshall:

“He’d learned long ago that the horses will always tell you what they need, so he listened, and backed or pushed them as they were ready. He trained the whole horse — the mind and the body. You had to build cardio and bones and muscle but if you left out the mind, you had nothing but junk.”

Fans of the first Harper thriller will flock to this recent follow-up — and come away hoping for a tale-telling trifecta.

Harry Levins of Manchester retired in 2007 as senior writer of the Post-Dispatch.

https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/reviews/review-bluegrass-stained-red-in-racetrack-novel-by-st-louis-author/article

Below you’ll find links to articles I’ve written and videos I’ve made—most all of them are about horses!

For more information about other of my writings (and publication reviews), click here and go to “books.”