The Sporting Club (Trade Ellis) - Softcover

Browning, Sinclair

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553579436 ISBN 13: 9780553579437

Publisher: Crimeline, 2000

Synopsis

One man's sport is another man's murder....

Private eye Trade Ellis, part cowgirl, part Apache, has her hands full running her Arizona ranch.  But when Victoria Carpenter, the famous romance writer, shows up with gruesome stories about repressed childhood memories, all going back over thirty years, Trade jumps at the chance to take the case.

Victoria's flashbacks include her father's so-called Sporting Club and its not-so-innocent picnics, where the wives talked, the children played...and the husbands made a brutal sport of hate and death. She's convinced that her father and his hunting buddies were racist killers. But how do you investigate decades-old crimes?  Especially with no bodies, no police reports, and the only accuser a woman who makes up stories for a living. When the threatening phone calls begin and a cross is set ablaze on Trade's ranch, it soon appears there will be at least two more bodies they won't have to dig out of the past-Victoria's and Trade's.

About this title

About the Author

Sinclair Browning spent her childhood on her belly in dry arroyos hunting sand rubies, converting her propane tank into a stagecoach and exploring the Sonoran desert on her horse. Summers were spent on the family ranch in southern Arizona. 

One of five nominees (the only writer) for the Arizona Arts Award in 2000, Browning's mysteries have been nominated for Shamus and Barry Awards. Publishers Weekly compared her America's Best to the "heroic war fiction of John Toland and Leon Uris." A former writing instructor she has also been a judge for the Edgar, the Shamus and the St. Martin's First awards. 

Her work covers a broad spectrum: mysteries, thrillers, historical fiction and a a metaphysical novel. Her nonfiction includes spiritual books on afterlife gifts, signs we receive from people we have lost who assure us that their spirits are indeed alive and well. 

sinclairbrowning.com

From the Back Cover

BURIED SECRETS

Private eye Trade Ellis, part cowgirl, part Apache, has her hands full running her Arizona ranch. But when Victoria Carpenters, the famous romance writer, shows up with gruesome stories about repressed childhood memories, all going back over thirty years, Trade jumps at the chance to take the case.

Victoria's flashbacks include her father's so-called Sporting Club and its not-so-innocent picnics, where the wives talked, the children played...and the husbands made a brutal sport of hate and death. She's convinced that her father and his hunting buddies were racist killers. But how do you investigate decades-old crimes? Especially with no bodies, no police reports, and the only accuser a woman who makes up stories for a living. When the threatening phone calls begin and a cross is set ablaze on Trade's ranch, it soon appears there will be at least two more bodies they won't have to dig out of the past -- Victoria's...and Trade's.

Reviews

Readers familiar with witty Arizonan Trade Ellis know she's more than "just an old cowhand from the Rio Grande"--Browning's leading lady is fast becoming a shrewd detective. In the series' second installment (after The Last Song Dogs), Trade meddles in messy family affairs, both on her ranch and with her latest client, Victoria Carpenter. Vicki is a serial romance writer with an obvious flair for embellishing the truth. Trade is therefore skeptical when Vicki presents her with a gruesome scenario she's convinced took place, one that involves her father, his hunting club and the 1963 disappearance of two black children and their father. The going's rough, especially when Trade discovers that many witnesses are either dead or no longer mentally stable. Persistence yields results when she teams up with county attorney (and old flame) Abel Messenger. He provides the legal edge Trade needs to go further with the tips she has, allowing her access to files, forensics labs and the local graveyard for missing persons. Threatening phone calls and KKK-inspired vandalism on her ranch make it apparent that Trade's on to something serious, but she's not about to give up. From the opening line, Browning's writing draws in readers. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Crimeline
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0553579436
• ISBN 13: 9780553579437
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320