Chasing Cans — Laura Crum

HORSE WRECK -- OR WAS IT MURDER? Chasing Cans is rodeo slang for barrel racing, a competition that can bring its winners fame and big bucks. To Gail McCarthy, a horse vet turned stay-at-home mom, chasing cans also stands for the ambitious pursuit of empty career goals at the expense of personal and family tranquility. While Gail is wrestling with this question in her own life, she witnesses a mystifying riding accident that kills a neighbor, a barrel-racing trainer. Then a mysterious series of seeming accidents occurs at the training establishment, and Gail's detective friend Jeri asks for her help in understanding the people and activities involved. The two women struggle to put the pieces of a puzzle together before someone else dies, and for her trouble Gail nearly becomes the next victim. Her horsemanship skills save her in a climax that pits her in a race against a desperate villain with a definite reason to want her silenced forever. The tenth book in the beloved series about Gail McCarthy is also a portrait of a woman making the challenging transition from her full-time career as a horse vet to full-time mother -- in a graceful and positive, yet realistic way.