The Empty Saddle

During a summer race at a New Jersey track, veteran jockey Danny Corbett is driving long-shot Harbor Wind toward an unexpected victory when a single shot knocks him from the saddle. The horse crosses the finish line riderless. Danny dies on the track.

The investigation quickly uncovers more than a simple murder. Large cash wagers had been placed on Harbor Wind to finish second. Danny had complained that someone was trying to control how he rode. A mysterious man in gloves appears around the track, and evidence suggests the killing may be tied to race fixing, gambling, and people with enough money and influence to keep questions from being answered.

The case goes cold.

Thirty years later, the files reach Mac Vance, Karen Vance, and James "Sully" Sullivan-the Cold Case Club of New Jersey. What begins as a review of an old racetrack murder soon becomes a hunt through forgotten evidence, buried motives, and secrets that powerful people believed had disappeared with time.

But one question has never gone away:

Who wanted Danny Corbett dead-and why did he have to die before Harbor Wind crossed the finish line?

The Empty Saddle is a Cold Case Club mystery filled with twists, old evidence, hidden connections, and a murder that has waited three decades to be solved.