Give First Place to Murder — Kathleen Delaney

Death strikes at the county fair -- and real-estate agent Ellen McKenzie is the unlucky one to have stumbled upon the body. The victim, pinned to a bale of hay with a pitchfork, was a groom at a horse farm belonging to Ellen's new client, Irma Long. But Ellen has double reason to be concerned: her nineteen-year-old daughter, Susannah, is working in Irma's barn for the summer.

Between the scandalous antics of the sexed-up horse trainer and the overworked, inscrutable stable manager, Ellen gleans a more sinister truth of what's really going on at the barn. Determined to help her friend and keep her daughter safe, Ellen begins to unravel the mystery, but can't prevent another death. And now she's in danger of dying at the hands of a killer prepared to ride away with murder.