Race Against Time - A Cassandra Mystery #2

This Cassandra Best series has been a pleasant surprise.  I do not remember ever seeing these books back in 1990 when they were published, and I had never heard of nor seen any of the books up until just recently.  But I'm definitely glad I picked them up, as they are some well-written stories with some beautiful cover and interior art.  This second book in the series definitely caught my interest for several reasons - the title alone (which I'll get more into later) was enough to catch my eye, but the setting was also important to me.  This book happens to be set in my home state of Kentucky!  Not very often do I come across a series book set in my home state, so when I do, I read them with a keen eye, wanting to see just how accurate the portrayal of Kentucky really is!

Race Against Time has Cassie Jones a/k/a Cassandra Best once again coming to the aid of her British pen pal, Alexandra Bennett (that name still gets me!), only this time she only has to travel as far as Lexington, Kentucky.  Alexandra is there to do a story for her father's paper on the Kentucky Derby social scene, but she needs Cassandra's help solving the mystery of a stolen race horse.  The Felsinghams (the family with whom Alexandra is staying) own a prize-willing race horse named Magic Spell who was predicted to win the Derby this year - the only problem is, someone has stolen the horse, and the Derby is only days away!  The Felsinghams did not want to involve the police, so Alexandra, of course, recommended Cassandra.  Once again convincing her parents she is simply going to visit her friend, Cassandra hops on an airplane (the cost of which is paid for by the Felsinghams) to Kentucky!

The story is actually a well-plotted mystery, and the clues as to the identity of the thief are right there (but you don't realize it until the revelations at the end, which is a sign of a great writer!).  Just like Nancy Drew, Cassandra wants to keep her investigation a secret, so she pretends to be an heiress interested in buying a new horse, which opens the doors for her to speak with a number of rather wealthy horse owners and trainers.  There are a couple of very obvious suspects that the author tries to lead the reader into thinking might actually have kidnapped poor Magic Spell, but the mystery is actually much more involved than that.  Cassandra, along with Alexandra's help, has to discern who has the real motive and means to take a prized race horse and keep him hidden.  Is it the neighboring horse owners who are secretly in financial straits?  Is it a prior trainer, who was fired no so long ago by the Felsinghams?  Is it the female jockey, who will do just about anything to prove that she has what it takes (and who happens to be the ex-girlfriend of the Felsingham's jockey)?  Is it the wealthy businessman who will spend any amount of money to buy the horses he wants?  Or is it someone that is not even on Cassandra's radar?  There are plenty of suspects to sift through, and not a lot of time to solve the case!

Probably one of the most enjoyable things about this story, for me anyway, was the Kentucky aspect.  Having been born and raised in Kentucky, I'm familiar with its Derby history and the importance of that event each year.  The description of the high society parties, the women all dressed up with hats and gloves, the parades, the balloon race (which really was a big event!  I remember watching the race from our front yard, as the hot air balloons would fly right over our subdivision every year!), and all of the excitement leading up to the event.  While the author does not go into much detailed description of Churchill Downs, she (or he) does make mention of the two spires that are the trademark visual when anyone thinks of the Downs (p. 63).

And Cassandra's reaction to the grass in Kentucky is pretty much spot-on for people who have never visited the state.  Everyone knows Kentucky is "The Bluegrass State," but when people visit Kentucky for the first time, just like Cassandra, they say, "So where's the bluegrass? ... This stuff just looks like plain old green to me" (p. 14).  As Alexandra points out, the grass in Kentucky is not REALLY blue - in certain places in the state, it just has a blueish hue to it, that's all.  But it's nice to see the author actually acknowledge and explain this fact.

Now, let's look at that title.  Race Against Time is a pretty common title for books.  Countless authors have used the title.  Piers Anthony, Christy Barritt, Eric Brown, Sharon Sala, Claire Eckard, Sandra Neil Wallace, and many others.  But the one I thought of immediately is the Nancy Drew book.  Or, should I properly say BOOKS!  Yes, there are actually two Nancy Drew books that use this title - book 66 in the original series (1982) and book 2 of the Girl Detective series (2004).  It's the book published in 1982, though, that bears discussion here.  That book, written by James D. Lawrence (who also created and wrote the Friday Foster strip that I reviewed recently), also dealt with a stolen horse.  While not set in Kentucky or around the Kentucky Derby, the story did have Nancy tracking down a horse named Shooting Star.  And just like in the Cassandra mystery here, the Nancy Drew mystery also has a stable that is burned down, as well as a stampeding horse that nearly tramples the sleuth.  (This scene, funny enough, appears on the cover of both books - the first Minstrel printing of the Nancy Drew mystery, as well as the cover to this Cassandra mystery.)  So, all these similarities might lead one to wonder - since the Nancy Drew Race Against Time was published eight years before the Cassandra mystery, did the author of this book read the Nancy Drew mystery and get inspired?  I've seen nothing to indicate that James Lawrence ever used the pseudonym of Jennifer Austin or wrote this series, so I think it would be safe to say the same author did not write both books.  Another mystery behind the books that will likely never be solved...

As with the first book in this series, the second Cassandra mystery is a great read.  It actually stands up well against the test of time, and even without cell phones and the internet, the story would still be a strong contender in today's market.  The characters are very likable, the mysteries are well-plotted, and everything one would expect to find in a young adult mystery series is there.

RATING:  10 shattered jade statuettes out of 10 for giving my home state and the Kentucky Derby a chance to shine in a well-written mystery!