Peg and Rose play the ponies

Berenson's bewitching third Senior Sleuths mystery (after Peg and Rose Stir Up Trouble) finds septuagenarian sisters-in-law Peg Turnbull and Rose Donovan heading from Connecticut to Kentucky to check in on Peg's mare, Lucky Luna. Luna's latest colt is slated for auction at the local yearling sale, which Peg has roped Rose into attending. It's a straightforward-enough proposition until Peg and Rose arrive at Six Oaks Farm, where Luna is being stabled, and encounter angry yearling manager Jim Grable. Though they sense tension on the premises, Peg and Rose turn a blind eye until Rose reads, in a news bulletin, that Jim has been found dead on the farm. The police pin his murder on Six Oaks employee Lucia Alvarez, but Rose doubts Lucia's guilt, so she enlists Peg to help her clear the young woman's name. Together, they unearth deep-seated corruption on the farm. Though Berenson has moved the setting from dog shows to horse stables, series fans will get exactly what they came for: lively banter, a breezy mystery, and plenty of amusing animal antics. This is good fun. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (June)

Dog breeder Peg Turnbull ups her game as she plunges headfirst into the world of thoroughbred horse racing. Peg has always let the staff at Six Oaks Farm handle the sales of brood mare Lucky Luna's offspring. This year, though, the Keeneland September Yearling Sale overlaps so nicely with the Bluegrass Cluster dog show in Lexington that she decides to drive down to Kentucky over Labor Day weekend to witness the sale of Luna's latest colt in person. Asking her late husband's sister, Rose Donovan, to come with her may feel like a stretch, since the sisters-in-law have just recently patched up their rocky relationship in an uneasy truce. But Peg seems eager to prove to Rose that the principles that lead someone to become one of the country's top breeders of standard poodles apply equally well to thoroughbreds. Having spent most of her adult life living among the Sisters of Divine Mercy, Rose is hardly equipped to deal with the rough and tumble world of horse racing, but she provides an important counterweight to Peg's unbridled exuberance. Rose's knack for moderation becomes especially important when Jim Grable, the yearling manager at Six Oaks, is brutally murdered. The senior sleuths discover that the higher the stakes, the higher the human capacity for evil. Taking the sisters-in-law's complicated relationship to a new level, Berenson combines a thorough tutorial on the care of yearlings with a chilling account of the vice than can infect those who care for them. Berenson at her best. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.