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WORK TITLE: Flamingo Road
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.sasscerhill.com/
CITY: Aiken
STATE: SC
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/sasscer-hill/ * https://www.americasbestracing.net/lifestyle/2017-author-horsewoman-sasscer-hill-chats-about-new-mystery-novel-flamingo-road
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Washington, DC; married.
EDUCATION:Franklin and Marshall College, B.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Worked formerly raising thoroughbred horses at a horse breeding farm in Maryland, as an amateur jockey, and as promotions director for an academic publishing house.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Sasscer Hill is a South Carolina-based writer. Hill has been involved with horse racing for most of her life. Though born in Washington, DC, she grew up on a farm, where she started riding horses at a young age. She has worked as an amateur jockey, owned a horse farm, and has ridden in fox hunts. Hill owned and operated a horse breeding farm in Maryland for thirty years, where she raised thoroughbred horses.
Hill received her undergraduate degree from Franklin and Marshall College. In addition to working with horses, Hill has worked as a promotions director for an academic publishing house. She lives in Aiken, South Carolina with her husband.
The protagonist of Hill’s Flamingo Road, is Baltimore cop Fia McKee. Still reeling from the death of her father, McKee throws herself into her work to deal with the grief. After taking the lead in an incident that resulted in a fatal shooting, McKee is at risk of being brought up on charges of excessive force. To avoid this fate, she is given the opportunity by her superiors to become an undercover agent with the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau (TRPB). The TRPB wants to place her at the Gulfstream Park racetrack in Florida to investigate a stable that they suspect may be administering performance-enhancing drugs to their horses.
Simultaneously, McKee is contacted by her brother, Patrick, who seeks help with his troubled teenage daughter, Jilly. A deranged criminal has been killing horses for their meat, and Jilly’s horse is the most recent victim. Patrick’s wife recently left him, and he does not have the capacity to meet his daughter’s emotional needs. Patrick and Jilly also live in Florida, so McKee accepts the job, hoping she can both uncover the mystery behind the suspect stable and provide emotional support for her family.
When McKee attempts to uncover who killed Jilly’s horse, she meets Zanin, the leader of the Protect the Animals League. He is investigating who is behind a recently discovered pen of feral pigs that eat human bodies. As the story progresses, the two come to see that they can help one another in their investigations.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly wrote, “Hill skirts some cliches, with Fia checking off boxes for beautiful, headstrong, and tough as nails, while Jilly plays the bratty and horse-obsessed teen. Still, she does a good job developing the horseracing background.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 1, 2017, Karen Keefe, review of Flamingo Road, p. 42.
Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2017, review of Flamingo Road.
Publishers Weekly, February 6, 2017, review of Flamingo Road, p. 48.*
Author, Horsewoman Sasscer Hill Chats About New Mystery Novel ‘Flamingo Road’
POP CULTURE
April 17th, 2017 BY David Hill
Sasscer Hill is a horsewoman, former amateur jockey and an accomplished mystery, suspense author. She created the popular the Nikki Latrelle mystery novel series. Her new novel, “Flamingo Road,” goes on sale on Tuesday, April 18. “Flamingo Road” is a Fia McKee mystery in which the protagonist is a former Baltimore police officer, put on leave for excessive use of force after interfering in a crime that turns deadly, given a second chance when sent to work undercover for the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau. Pre-order “Flamingo Road” here.
Hill took a few minutes to discuss horse racing and her new book with America’s Best Racing’s Dave Hill.
You have a background in horse racing. Could you tell our readers a little bit about your life before you became a novelist?
My father died when I was 16, and I was lucky enough to be taken under the wing of horseman Alfred H. Smith Sr., owner and breeder of two-time steeplechase Eclipse champion Tuscalee. Smith and his family taught me everything I know about horses and racing, and when I got married, my husband and I took over my family’s farm in Maryland, where I raised Thoroughbred racehorses for over 30 years.
Your new book, “Flamingo Road,” involves a lot of racetrack intrigue, and includes a plot line where your main character goes undercover for the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau. I was surprised to learn that this is a very real agency! And I read that you did a lot of research about them in preparation for writing the book. Can you tell us about that and about the hands-on way you research your stories before writing them?
In 2012, I arranged to meet with Frank Fabian, former president of the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau (TRPB) and 20-year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I drove up to Fair Hill, Md., where the TRPB is headquartered and met him and James Gowan, the TRPB vice president. I think they interviewed me more than I interviewed them. Probably, they wanted to make sure some ignorant, lowlife wasn’t about to paint an unfavorable, inaccurate portrait of their organization. Gowan was kind enough to read the final manuscript of “Flamingo Road” to check for TRPB procedural errors. I heaved a sigh of relief when he gave me the green light.
I myself have pitched horse-racing stories to mainstream publishers and magazines only to be told that there isn't enough interest in the sport. I read that when you pitched “Flamingo Road,” you included statistics about the health and popularity of horse racing. Do you think this made a difference? Why do you think, even in the face of enormous success of books like “Seabiscuit,” that there is still this misconception about the sport and the public? How can we change it?
I do think my statistics helped, but you know how they say timing is everything? That data might not have had that much effect if it wasn’t for a horse named American Phaorah. I sent my stats in about a week before the colt won the Triple Crown. A day or two before he ran, I received an email about my first three “Nikki Latrelle” novels from Steve Haskin, former senior correspondent for the BloodHorse. He wrote, “The honor comes in your accomplishments and talent, and you should take great pride in such a magnificent trifecta. Congratulations!!! Well done. Dick Francis lives!” His words made me cry, and of course I forwarded them to the publisher.
But the brightest star to align that week was Pharoah. Deep in my heart, I’d believed if the colt could pull off the historical and momentous feat of winning the first Triple Crown in 37 years, it might nudge a publishing offer from St. Martins my way.
When Pharoah opened up and won the Belmont [Stakes] by daylight, I could feel the bright star that is love for horses rising over me. Pharoah’s race drew 22 million television viewers, and the subsequent radio, television and social media attention was phenomenal. Within a week, American Pharoah appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and a day later, I received a two-book offer from St. Martins, Minotaur.
As far as improving the perception of horse racing, I hope my books can make a difference. Realistically, the biggest improvement would be for consistency of rules between different jurisdictions, states, and racing commissions. The current mess makes it easier for criminals to ply their trade. If the U.S. would move to drug free racing, closer to the rules of Europe, that would be a huge plus.
Filly featured in "Flamingo Road" (Courtesy Sasscer Hill)
Flamingo Road is a mystery, and it gets into some dark territory. There is just about every bad thing you could imagine happening at a racetrack happening here. Yes, Fia encounters a number of good and honorable people at Gulfstream Park, but she also encounters a lot of terrible things. Is this picture of life on the backstretch accurate in your experience? How much of it is heightened for literary affect?
Sadly, not that much is heightened for literary affect. If you think of what people will do for money, for example the drug gangs in this country, it’s easy to see the realism in the novel.
What's next for Fia? Where do you plan to go with this series?
Fia’s next stop is Saratoga. That book is completed and will come out in the spring of 2018. I hope to write a novel that will take place at Santa Anita Park for the third in the series.
You've been compared to Dick Francis, which is high and accurate praise in my opinion. You've also said he was an influence on you. What other writers inspire you and have influenced your work?
Probably the biggest influence on me, because he impacted me as a child, was Walter Farley, the author of “The Black Stallion” and “The Island Stallion” books. These days, I am loving the books of John Hart, Michael Connelly and Robert Crais.
Who's your pick to win the Kentucky Derby?
I’m going with Steve Haskin’s current choice of Always Dreaming. I’d also have to lay a couple of bucks on Irish War Cry because I love his pedigree so much.
Sasscer Hill
Author Sasscer Hill has been involved in horse racing as an amateur jockey and breeder for most of her life. Now that she has turned to writing, it is only natural that her mystery novels are about horse racing.Hill has a rich history as an amateur steeplechase jockey, horse farm owner, and has ridden in fox hunts for 22 years. For some 30 years Hill owned and operated a horse breeding farm in Maryland where she raised thoroughbred horses. Among the best horses she bred and raised was For Love and Honor which won $418,000 in New York racing at Saratoga, Belmont and Aqueduct.Hills love for horses is deeply inbred over a long lineage tracing to Samuel Ogle, colonial governor of Maryland in the mid-1770s. Samuel Ogle is credited with bringing horse racing to North America, staging the first English-style race at Annapolis, Maryland in 1745. Ogle imported Queen Mab, part of the first pair of English-bred Thoroughbreds imported to the colonies. Queen Mab was a gift from Lord Baltimore presented when Ogle travelled to England in 1745.Her love of horses, experience in steeplechase racing, knowledge and writing style has prompted many book lovers and critics to compare Hill with the famous British horse racing mystery writer, Dick Francis. Her first novel, FULL MORTALITY, was nominated for both the Agatha and Macavity Best First Mystery Awards. Her second novel, RACING FROM DEATH, was nominated for the Dr. Tony Ryan Award for Excellence in Racing Literature.
As promotions director for an academic publishing house, and several trade associations, Hill ran Capitol Hill luncheons, dinners, banquets, exhibits, and produced catalogs for direct-mail to more than 250,000 academicians, libraries and other users.Born in Washington, D.C., Hill earned a BA in English Literature from Franklin and Marshall College and now lives with her husband in Aiken, South Carolina.
New Books
April 2018
(hardback)
The Dark Side of Town
Series
Nikki Latrelle Racing Mystery
1. Full Mortality (2010)
2. Racing from Death (2012)
3. The Sea Horse Trade (2013)
Steamroller (2011)
Game (2013)
Racing From Evil (2016)
Novels
Flamingo Road (2017)
The Dark Side of Town (2018)
Collections
Pretty Fraudulent and Venomous (2013)
Gripping Tales of Fact and Fiction (2017)
Novellas
Colonel Warburton's Madness (2014)
Non fiction
Rare \highs, Killer Lows (2013)
Awards
Agatha Award Best First Novel nominee (2010) : Full Mortality
Sasscer Hill
BUT WHO IS SHE REALLY, THIS SASSCER HILL?
I was born with horses in my veins and started galloping about the family farm on a stick horse when I was four years old. By the time I was seven or eight, I was sneaking rides on the Belgian plow horses. I did this because my father didn't like horses and considered ponies dangerous. So instead, I drummed my heels on the sides of a 2,000 pound draft mare, while grasping whatever string or rope I managed to tie to her halter.
This year, with my first book being published, I've looked to that past and dedicated my horse racing mystery to the two people who recognized and nurtured the horses that raced in my veins - Rhoda Christmas Bowling and Alfred H. Smith, Sr.
Rhoda is probably America's first female sports writer. She wrote a racing column for the Washington Times Herald in the nineteen forties. She bred Maryland racehorses, and held a trainer's license, too. She had a fiery temper, often cursed like a sailor, and threw society parties that could turn Mary Lou Whitney green with envy. Rhoda's brother, Edward Christmas, trained the legendary Gallorette, the mare that won the Metropolitan and Brooklyn Handicaps, the 1948 Whitney Stakes, and beat the champion colt Stymie. Beat him three times.
Rhoda had a lovely estate in Upper Marlboro named Bellefields where she gave me my earliest riding lessons on a dappled-grey rescue horse named Blue Bantam. I first met Rhoda at a birthday party held for her niece, Edward Christmas's daughter, Kitsi. It was one those dreaded events where I was forced into a fussy little dress and patent leather shoes. Kitsi, a motherless child with curly red hair, squirmed in an equally frilly outfit. Like me, she was only five or six, but must have recognized a kindred soul, for we snuck off, found a creek, and returned covered in mud. Kitsi and I have been friends ever since, and my only regret is that I never met her father, who died not long after that party.
Rhoda visited my father at our farm, Pleasant Hills, when I was seven or eight. It was summer, and we sat on wicker chairs on the front porch, where I soon realized Rhoda was intent on persuading my father to buy me a pony.
It was ridiculous, she said, when he owned a farm and had a tenant who kept plow horses, already.
I sat, tensely watching them bat the argument back and forth. I prayed Rhoda would win, but my father wasn't having it. When Rhoda left, I was crushed. I'd been so close.
My father died when I was sixteen, and Alfred H. Smith Sr., owner of 1966 Eclipse Champion steeplechaser, Tuscalee, took me under his wing, probably because my mother told him I was a handful and headed for trouble.
Mr. Smith, as I always called him, took me out horseback riding with his family, and after determining I could ride, he took me foxhunting, putting me on a just-off-the-track Thoroughbred, named Hillmar. Those were some wild hunts. I confess I committed the sin of "passing the master" several times, pulling vainly on the bit stuck firmly between Hillmar's teeth. But I'd found a place to channel that teenage passion, and my grades improved steadily. I wound up graduating from Franklin and Marshall College with honors and a degree in English Literature.
I bought my first broodmare in 1982, to keep my lonely hunter company. I raised her foals, prepped them, and sold them at the Timonium yearling sales. My husband, Daniel Filippelli, and I had no help. We worked full time and took care of the farm ourselves. Work was something to get through until I could be home with the horses.
In 1985, the Smith family gave me another retired steeplechaser named Circus Rullah. A grandson of Nasrullah, that horse would jump anything and carried me to a win over the timber fences at the 1986 Potomac Hunt Races. I've never been so focused or so scared in my life. You don't race to the fences - they rush straight at you.
By 1992, Barry G. Wiseman - currently the top assistant to Jonathan Sheppard -- was training my home-breds, and I was looking for a new broodmare. Barry liked a Hero's Honor filly that belonged to Maryland trainer Gary Capuano. Bred by Jim McCay's wife and named In Her Honor, she was sore and laid up on a farm on the Eastern shore of Maryland. Trusting Barry, I paid for the horse sight unseen. We drove across the Bay Bridge in a terrible rain and wind storm in November of 1993 with the horse trailer whipping behind us. We reached the farm and Gary's uncle, Lou Capuano, led us into a dimly lit barn, pointed to a stall and said, "There she is."
A small horse resembling a woolly mammoth glared at us from the depths of the stall.
"Watch yourself, when I bring her out," Lou said, "she's mean and she'll kick you."
What had Barry gotten me into?
But when Lou led her out, she stepped up from that deceptively low stall and towered over me. She had a bowed tendon the size of a melon. Her hair was matted, dirty, and wet. We loaded her on my trailer, took her home, and put her in a paddock with a run-in-shed. Disdaining the shed, she stood outside. The hard, cold rain slicked her coat down and revealed a powerful, classic body. As usual, Barry was right.
I bred that mare to the new sire, Not For Love. I named the resulting colt For Love and Honor, and no doubt some of you New Yorkers will remember him running and winning at Saratoga and Aqueduct. He won around $418,000 and so far is the best horse I've bred. But you never know, he has yearling half-brother, named Out For Honor. The colt is by Outflanker, and when he flies around my front field, I recognize the racing in his veins.
Sasscer Hill on the lead aboard Circus Rullah on the way to winning the 1986 Potomac Hunt's Foxhunter Timber Race.
Flamingo Road
Karen Keefe
Booklist.
113.13 (Mar. 1, 2017): p42.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Flamingo Road.
By Sasscer Hill.
Apr. 2017.320p. Minotaur, $25.99 (9781250096913); e-book, $12.99 (9781250096920).
Still channeling her energies into her work following her father's murder, Baltimore cop Fia McKee finds herself
forced to accept an offer she can't refuse. She either takes an undercover job for the Thoroughbred Racing Protective
Bureau or she risks being brought up on charges of excessive force during a fatal shooting. Fia returns to the world of
horse racing in which she was raised, and working at Florida's Gulfstream Park puts her closer to her divorced brother
and his troubled teenage daughter, whose horse was recently killed. Zanin, a sexy, ex-military animal-rights activist,
suspects some serious bad guys--the discovery of pens of feral pigs that devour victims' bodies pretty much seals that
deal. Meanwhile, Fia pulls out all the undercover stops trying to figure out how a series of long shots from the same
stable keep winning high-stakes races. This series debut will appeal to fans of strong female protagonists, Florida noir,
and all things horse racing.--Karen Keefe
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Keefe, Karen. "Flamingo Road." Booklist, 1 Mar. 2017, p. 42. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA488689501&it=r&asid=0f2bb43a6b1ec269148446e2d9bceacd.
Accessed 8 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A488689501
10/8/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1507495162749 2/3
Flamingo Road: A Fia McKee Mystery
Publishers Weekly.
264.6 (Feb. 6, 2017): p48.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Flamingo Road: A Fia McKee Mystery
Sasscer Hill. Minotaur, $25.99 (320p) ISBN 9781-250-09691-3
While perhaps not in the winner's circle, this horse-racing series launch from Hill (Full Mortality) earns at least a show.
The powers that be encourage Baltimore cop Fia McKee to become an agent with the Thoroughbred Racing Protective
Bureau after a shooting leaves her in hot water with internal affairs. Meanwhile, Fia's brother, Patrick, whose wife has
left him, needs her help with his troubled 15-year-old daughter, Jilly, who's scared of a horse-butchering ring active
near their home in Broward County, Fla. Fortunately, the TRPB wants Fia undercover at the nearby Gulfstream Park
racetrack investigating what appears to be an unknown performance-enhancing drug, so she's able to pursue the two
different cases simultaneously. Hill skirts some cliches, with Fia checking off boxes for beautiful, headstrong, and
tough as nails, while Jilly plays the bratty and horse-obsessed teen. Still, she does a good job developing the
horseracing background, as well as depicting the criminals who populate the C-Nine Basin (aka the Wild West of
Florida). Agent: Ann Collette, Helen Rees Literary Agency. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Flamingo Road: A Fia McKee Mystery." Publishers Weekly, 6 Feb. 2017, p. 48. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA480593837&it=r&asid=b5680ea19a486b6c0c5768564d389fed.
Accessed 8 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A480593837
10/8/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1507495162749 3/3
Hill, Sasscer: FLAMINGO ROAD
Kirkus Reviews.
(Jan. 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Hill, Sasscer FLAMINGO ROAD Minotaur (Adult Fiction) $25.99 4, 18 ISBN: 978-1-250-09691-3
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
(Racing from Evil, 2016, etc.) boasts a 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.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Hill, Sasscer: FLAMINGO ROAD." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA477242520&it=r&asid=c8d1f78cd8bdd8329ee51662dd247a3f.
Accessed 8 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A477242520