Dead Man's Touch: A Steve Cline Mystery (Book Two)

By Kit Ehrman

Book Overview

Steve Cline thought surviving his first investigation was the hardest thing he'd ever face. He was wrong.

Still reeling from the physical and psychological fallout of At Risk, Steve is thrown into turmoil when his estranged father dies suddenly-and he learns a devastating truth: the man being laid to rest was never his biological father. His real father is Christopher J. Kessler, a respected Thoroughbred trainer on the Maryland circuit.

Drawn to the racetrack in search of answers, Steve slips into the hidden world known as the backside-the grueling, insular domain of trainers, grooms, and magnificent horses. When Kessler's most promising runners show signs of being drugged, Steve agrees to work undercover as a lowly hotwalker to find out who's behind the dopings.

What begins as a search for identity turns deadly. As Steve navigates oppressive summer heat, punishing labor, and a culture built on silence and loyalty, his investigation leads to corruption, betrayal-and murder. On the backside, ambition is ruthless, innocence is expendable, and some men will do anything to get the right horse under the wire first.

Dead Man's Touch is the second book in the Steve Cline Mystery Series, praised for its authenticity and insider detail. Steve leaves the racetrack changed-and unaware that the next mystery will ignite consequences he can't control.

"Dick Francis fans rejoice." The Denver Post
Adult Content

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0DS9TG9GS
• ISBN13: 9798305938333
• Release Date: January 2020
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 314 Pages
• Weight: 0.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Another great story

I enjoyed this Kit Ehrman book as much as the last. Fast paced, thoughtful and with great characters.

Dead Man's Touch

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a wonderful sequel to At Risk. The characters were well developed and believable. I was very involved in what Steve was going through. It was a good story, & I was sorry when it was over, relieved that there was a third book.

exciting amateur sleuth

He saw a man executed and was nearly killed himself. Twenty-two years old Steve Cline has recovered but is still emotionally fragile and unable to return to his job at Foxdale Horse Farm. He is estranged from his wealthy and prominent family but when he learns that his father was killed, he returns home for the funeral. His angry and embittered brother Robert tells Steve that he was not biologically related to the individual he thought was his father.When he confronts his mother, she admits that his biological father is racehorse trainer Kessler working out of Washington Park. When he finally tells Kessler who he is, the man tells him that he is glad to have a son. When he learns his father is having trouble with an unknown person who wants him to fix the races, Steve volunteers to go undercover to find the guilty parties. In the course of his inquiries, a co-worker is murdered and Steve comes within a pixel of losing his life too.Kit Ehrman has a unique voice that makes DEAD MAN'S TOUCH an exciting amateur sleuth tale. The protagonist, rather young in physical years, has experienced so much that he comes across as a mature person so familiar with death that he realizes it can strike without warning at anytime. There is a lot of action in this straightforward mystery much of it dealing with a protagonist who refuses to stay down after being threatened and battered. DEAD MAN'S TOUCH is as good as the works of Dick Francis.Harriet Klausner