Description:
"Life is like a horse race. But in the end, no one wins. It's what you do in the middle that matters."
A tense murder-mystery set in a long-forgotten racetrack in 1880 Brooklyn. The lives of Jack, a stable hand trying to pass as a man for her own safety, Spiro, a quick-tempered but promising young jockey and Duds, a skilled African American trainer, become intertwined in the Sheepshead Bay Race Track's dark underbelly. The taut plotline quickly unfurls, propelled by a quirky cast of characters. Race Track pits good against evil, shadow against light and life against death, sprawling to the seedy streets of Coney Island, the toney mansions of Bay Ridge, the docks of Red Hook, and beyond.
Brief description: Catherine Gigante-Brown has written nine novels, the latest of which is Race Track. Her earlier books, all published by Volossal, are Immigrant Hearts (2025), Cry of Silence (2023), Paul and Carol Go to Guatemala (2021), Better than Sisters (2019), Different Drummer (2015, which is also a musical play) and The El Trilogy (The El, 2012; The Bells of Brooklyn, 2017 and Brooklyn Roses, 2019). Her essays have appeared in Oldster, Eat, Darling, Eat and Essence. Her poetry has appeared in Mom's Egg Review and Spillwords. Her theatrical works have been performed at the Rosendale Theatre Collective's Short Play Festivals. She lives in New York and Florida with her husband.