Gail Buchalter will discuss her book Friday Night Fighters – A Forensic Veterinarian Mystery at a book signing at the Talbot County Free Library on Monday, May 22 at 6 pm. Arguably the first CSI animal novel, this fact-based, murder mystery about pit bull fighting takes place on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. A portion of book sales will be donated to the Talbot Humane Society
Allison Reeves, a forensic veterinarian, is an avenger of the abused. A New York City transplant, she moved to Trappe to live with her boyfriend, K-9 Senior State Trooper John Thibert. Today Reeves is the director of the mid-Atlantic Region of the Humane Society for the Prevention of Animal Cruelty (HSPAC), and is searching for the killer of a large, black pit bull bearing fighting scars.
She and best friend and partner Jackie Vincente, a lead investigator for HSPAC, and John are dragged through the underbelly of the pit bull fighting world where both dogs and their owners turn up dead. Equally disturbing, Allison discovers previously confiscated dogs are mysteriously returning to the big-ticket Friday night fights.
The trio methodically uncovers the major players in the Mecca of dog fighting, but the murderer of the black pit bull still eludes them – until Allison risks her life facing down a killer who has nothing left to lose.
Gail’s career as a journalist set the ground work for this novel. She was a staff writer for People, a contributing editor at Parade for more than 20 years, and possibly the longest surviving free-lancer at Forbes. She wrote about film, television and recording artists, sports figures, entrepreneurs and her true love – animals.
Born in and raised in Manhattan, she lived in Nashville, Los Angeles and Southampton, NY, before moving to rural Maryland, where she opened a yoga studio in Cambridge. A board member of the local humane society, she was also instrumental in helping create a low-cost feral cat spay/neuter organization. She has adopted and fostered numerous cats and dogs, and today lives with them on several acres in the woods.
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