"Hidden away from the glittering stage of thoroughbred racing, with its flashing silks and gleaming horseflesh, is a place they call 'the backside.' In Dead Man's Touch . . . Ehrman refers to this behind-the-scenes area--where trainers, grooms, barn managers and stable hands minister around the clock to the needs of their high-strung charges--as 'a world unto itself.' Ehrman strikes a solid claim to this gritty territory with another heels-up thriller that takes up where Dick Francis left ...

ForeWord Magazine Book-of-the-Year Bronze medalistIndependent Publishers' IPPY Award finalist"Cold Burn is a hot read. Grab it." ~ Rita Mae Brown"Ehrman's third Steve Cline mystery finds Cline working the night shift at a Virginia Thoroughbred farm in foaling season, and the detailed, apparently accurate account of what normally goes on there is among the book's chief attractions. Another is Cline's secret attempt to find out what was behind the baffling disappearanc...

Awards and Nominations:Best Book of Indiana, Book Sense notable Book, IPPY Award medalist, ForeWord magazine Book-of-the-Year medalist, Kentucky Literary Award and Great Lakes Book Award nomineeBooklist: "When Steve Cline accepts his horse trainer father's invitation to spend two weeks at Churchill Downs as one of two caregivers for Kentucky Derby contender Gallant Storm, he looks forward to an idyllic respite from his normal duties as a barn manager in Maryland. Cline would...

This stirring first mystery is set in Maryland’s rich horse country where Steve Cline seems, at twenty-one, much too young to be in charge of a major stable. Seasoned by summers on a dude ranch, his skills and stamina are sorely tested when he’s hijacked early one morning along with some of the stable’s horses. His escape turns him into a killer’s target in an environment where a complex scheme develops and everyone, no matter how innocent, courts risks.REVIEWS “It's amazing what h...

What do you do when everything you’ve held to be true, when your entire life, in fact, turns out to be a lie? When 22-year-old Steve Cline learns that he’s illegitimate, and his real father is a race- horse trainer, he heads to the Maryland track. Steve’s father recruits him to work undercover in an effort to discover who’s been doping his most promising horses, and he quickly gets caught up in the unique lifestyle inherent to the backside. But it is not a life without peril because some m...

When Bruce Claremont quit his job working on a thoroughbred breeding farm and vanished, his sister Corey asks barn manager Steve Cline for help. So Steve slips into Bruce’s world, and the more he learns, the more he suspects that Corey may never see her brother again. Because all is not as it seems in this pastoral setting where secrets and jealousies and obsessions are the norm, and the present seems to be repeating its fiery past. If Steve’s not very careful, he just might get burned . ....

Although 23-year-old barn manager Steve Cline doesn't expect to stray far from the horse world, he has enrolled in a private investigations course and is working on the final project. But when his father, racehorse trainer Chris Kessler, invites him to Louisville on a two-week, all-expense-paid vacation that will culminate with the running of the Kentucky Derby, how can he refuse? Except, it isn't really a vaction. Kessler has a Derby runner and needs a reliable fill-in when one of his emp...

"It's amazing what horses can do for a mystery. Kit Ehrman's debut novel, At Risk, reeks of authenticity, and the hunters and jumpers that are boarded at this no-frills garage have personality to burn. When seven of these horses are stolen in the dead of night, Stephen Cline, the 21-year-old barn manager . . . in the honored tradition of a Dick Francis hero, vows to track down the thieves . . ." ~Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times"Both horse lovers and crime fans who've never stepp...

In Toni Leland's first Kovak & Quaid mystery, a national champion show jumper in an Ohio horse training barn is replaced by a look-alike, but the switch isn't discovered for months.Comfortable in the safe world of equine photography, ex-cop Kim Kovak thinks she has finally moved past the terror of a routine patrol that changed her life forever. Then a simple photo shoot catapults her into the middle of a dangerous arena of horse theft. Old habits die hard and Kim goes afte...

Carlos Dega, insurance investigator, has an extraordinary job. His clients are expensive horses. Unfortunately, most of them are dead.A former Olympic dressage rider, Carlos is brought into a swirl of intrigue, deaths, and beautiful women. With the help of fiery Minneapolis Assistant District Attorney Susan Lindstrom, Carlos is quickly tracking criminals who would harm beautiful animals for personal profit. There are plenty of thrills and trails that lead nowhere but trouble. A cas...

Best-selling author, Toni Leland, crafts a plot that will bring chills to any reader.To life-long friends, Jessica Rayder and Faith Angelo, Easton Ridge Equestrian Center is more than a successful riding lesson business--it's a dream-come-true, one that the two young horse trainers have planned since childhood. Set in beautiful Connecticut, the training center seems the perfect set-up, but Fate has other plans.When a series of tough breaks threaten disaster, Faith's tragic ...

Author Toni Leland continues the series of Kovak & Quaid in this second book. Kim Kovak is a well-known equine photographer, a profession she adopted after recovering from a shooting accident that maimed her leg, killed her police horse, and forced her retirement from the Columbus Ohio Mounted Police Unit.When a simple magazine assignment in Chicago involves an encounter with a runaway carriage horse, Kim is catapulted into the news, and the owner of a new equestrian attraction beg...