P.I. Bertrand McAbee never thought he'd see another harness race track after a near-death experience in Cassies Ruler. This former classics prof is hired to look into the beating and threatening of a harness horse trainer. As he engages with the case the story of a pacer - Phantom Express - emerges that begins to capture the attention of . It also brings back some bad memories to some vicious people. In what occurs too often for McAbee's taste, a simple case caroms into a complex case where death and mayhem lurk.

Joseph A. McCaffrey isn't a classics professor. He's not a P.I. either. But he is a professor of philosophy at in . Sometime back he was proposed a job not unlike that which his protagonist, Bertrand McAbee, was offered and accepted. The fictional McAbee stories are explorations of roads untaken. Other McAbee adventures include Cassies Ruler, Confessional Matters, The Pony Circus Wagon, and Scholarly Executions.

P.I. Bertrand McAbee never thought he'd see another harness race track after a near-death experience in Cassies Ruler. This former classics prof is hired to look into the beating and threatening of a harness horse trainer. As he engages with the case the story of a pacer Phantom Express emerges that begins to capture the attention of America. It also brings back some bad memories to some vicious people. In what occurs too often for McAbee's taste, a simple case caroms into a complex case where death and mayhem lurk.