Nikki Latrelle Racing Mystery Books In Order

Publication Order of Nikki Latrelle Racing Mystery Books

Nikki Latrelle Racing Mystery series is a creation by mystery, romance and thriller enthusiasts Sasscer Hill. Born in Washington DC, Hill describes the love she has for horses as unexplainable. During her school years, she studied and graduated with a BA in English from the Franklin and Marshall College. Since then, Hill has been involved in a series of horse racing both as an amateur jockey and breeder all through her life. She confesses that she was born with horses in her veins. This is possibly the reason why she started galloping for the family farm at a tender age of four.

Hill could sneak rides on the Belgian plow horses at the age of seven and eight. However, in contrast, her father did not like horses and actually considered ponies to be dangerous. She attributes her horse love and vast experience to Rhoda Christmas and Alfred H. Smith. Hill recognizes them as an important factor in her horse riding-love affair. Just to mention, Rhoda is probably among the first American female sports writer. She has written several columns for the Washington Times Herald. Besides, she has bred Maryland racehorses with a trainer’s license.

Sasscer began her early horse riding classes at Bellefields, Rhoda’s horse estate in Upper Marlboro. Mr. Smith furthered her horse riding lessons soon after the demise of Hill’s father. Currently, Hill has a rich history and vast experience when it comes to horse riding. This is justified by her horse farm and 22 years riding in fox hunts. Having turned to writing, she has brought along her horse experience into the field. So to say, her mystery novels are all about horse racing.

Full Mortality

This is the first installment of Sasscer Hill’s Nikki Latrelle Racing Mystery series. This book was published in 2010 with seven editions. As mentioned before, Sasscer Hills stories revolve around horse racing. Having said this, Full Mortality features a little girl named Jockey Nikki Latrelle. She gets a chance of a lifetime to ride and participate in her favorite stakes race. You will certainly fall in love with the personality and character of Nikki. She has risen from a life of hard knocks and is determined to go further, rising above her past. She, therefore, takes up what she likes, being a horse jockey.

For sure, horse riding and tendering is a male dominated sport or activity. This makes everything daunting for Nikki. However, her attitude is one to find amusing and humorous. She is destined to make through the challenges in this sport. With her rough past, she has an attitude and personality tough as nails. She also resolved to be quite anti-social for her benefit.

Besides Nikki, there is Lorna Doone. Despite her dull name, she has a personality of a sweet cookie. Nikki’s trainer, Jim Ravinsky, offers her a lifetime opportunity to go and meet up with numerous Virginia-bred horses in the Colonial Downs in Virginia. Here, she would be the exercise rider, jockey, and an assistant trainer. This makes her feel hellish and decides to take her friends Ramon and Lorna with her.

As she prepares for the race, almost everything starts going wrong. To begin, before shipping out, Paco Martinez, her apprentice Jockey dies. It is believed to be due to some drug ingestion. As if this isn’t enough, her friend Lorna starts dating a bad boy. To add to this, another jockey drops dead from taking a super weight loss cocktail. Many other things happen quickly, culminating in the disappearance of Lorna.

Racing from Death

This is the second continuation of Sasscer Hill’s Nikki Latrelle Racing Mystery series. In the first installment, Nikki seemed not to enjoy what she had been looking for all her life. Despite being offered an unimaginable offer to participate in the Virginia race, everything began going south after her arrival at Virginia. So to say, racing at the beautiful Virginia’s Colonial Downs becomes a nightmare. The death of Jockeys coupled with the disappearance of her friend are some of the few challenges. To add to this, a sociopath sells diet cocktails, which are suspected to be the reason why jockeys are falling dead.

Initially, the cocktail is supposed to facilitate weight gain for the jockeys to actively participate in the race. However, this does not seem to be the right cocktail. Many other strange events greet Nikki upon her arrival at Virginia. Not only are the physical happenings scaring Nikki, but also the environmental features. She has to deal with strange noise echo every night at the wood as they live in a cottage. Besides, there is a man with haunted eyes dragging dirt smeared shovel, and there is a body of a victim, appearing to have been burnt lying outside the track.

The bad boy dating Lorna has links with a dangerous supply of drugs. He confuses Lorna with his raw sexuality. Nikki uncovers the hidden meth lab, something that pulls her to the race against death. Could she possibly survive?

The Sea Horse Trade

The Sea Horse Trade is the third and last installment in this fast-paced mystery series by Sasscer Hills. The protagonist remains to be Nikki, a young woman with comparably bigger gahoonies than many men. However, in this third novel, Nikki takes her horse riding escapades to Florida. Be it unfortunate events or bad luck; she again witnesses the murder of a young girl in the first morning on the streets. The young girl was dressed provocatively with a tattoo that Nikki finds it hard to forget.

Besides this, Nikki is also immensely suspicious with a new horse owner, Currito Maldonista, a wealthy South American man, with flying temperaments. She also meets her old friend, Carla Ruben, who has come to Florida searching for her teenage daughter, Jade, she had given her up for adoption. Jade’s adoptive parents are dead, and surprisingly, she has gone missing. Nikki suspects that Maldonista could be behind the disappearance of Jade. This is due to her suspicions that Maldonista could be in the business of abducting young teenage American girls forcing them into the sex trade. Besides, she also suspects that he is among the Columbian drug syndicate. The two, Nikki and Carla put their lives on the line to find out the facts.

With that said, Sasscer Hill succeeded in merging her horse riding the world to book writing. Her books have been nominated for various book awards including Macavity, Tony Ryan, and Agatha awards. Currently, she is writing her second series featuring Fia McKee, the thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau agent.