New Nick Carter Weekly; No. 28. July 10, 1897; Nick Carter at the Track; Or, How He Became a Dead Game Sport.

July 1897. The racetrack smells of money and smoke, and Nick Carter is about to get in over his head. A panicked Wall Street broker named James Wheeler shows up at Carter's door with a desperate story: he's gambled away the inheritance of two young heirs, and now rumors swirl that Denver Bay, the horse they've bet everything on, is about to be sabotaged. Carter takes the case, but what starts as a straightforward investigation of horse-napping and race-fixing pulls him into a den of gamblers, fixers, and men who kill without blinking. Disguised as a tout and a stable hand, Carter works the inside track, racing against a clock that ticks louder with every passing hour. The truth, when it surfaces, is uglier than a fixed race: it involves betrayal at the highest levels, men who'd rather see a horse die than see Carter win. This is detective fiction at its pulp-era finest: fast, violent, and utterly without sentimentality. Perfect for readers who want their mysteries with a shot of adrenaline and the unmistakable grit of old New York.