Saratoga Fleshpot: A Charlie Bradshaw Mystery - Softcover

Dobyns, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140255354 ISBN 13: 9780140255355

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1996

Synopsis

The ninth mystery set at the famed Saratoga Raceway presents a colorful tale of murder and horseflesh that's sure to satisfy mystery fans and racing enthusiasts alike. When P.I. Charlie Bradshaw's politically incorrect pal Victor Plotz becomes a murder suspect, he and Charlie find themselves caught up in the high drama of the horse auctions as they try to solve the case.

About this title

About the Author

Stephen Dobyns, a professor of English at Syracuse University, also teaches creative writing at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina.

From Publishers Weekly

No, this isn't a racy view of the racing city-simply the name of the horse at the center of Dobyns's lively new entry (following Saratoga Backtalk) in his series about laid-back Saratoga detective Charlie Bradshaw and his impossible sidekick, Vic Plotz. Fleshpot has been sold for more than half a million in the annual August horse sales, despite his tendency to nip people in the backside; Plotz, noticing after the sale that the horse no longer nips, wonders if a switch has been pulled. This observation puts him in trouble with the devious folk behind the switch, and since the powers that be in the city have never been fond of Plotz, his troubles soon accumulate. It takes three murders, a hilarious horsenapping (Fleshpot is stashed in the bridal suite of a hotel closed for the season) and a wing-ding climax at a parade honoring Saratoga's retiring police chief-another Plotz archenemy-before things are set to rights, more or less. Slow out of the gate but soon gaining pace, this tale stars Plotz, poet Dobyns's witty narrator: "The Saratoga Republicans had gone to bed early in order to build up the energy to grind it to the poor the next day... The few lights we passed probably belonged to Democrats, staring sullenly into their whisky glasses and wondering where the thrill had gone."
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140255354
• ISBN 13: 9780140255355
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224