A wealthy mystery writer uses her doctor ex-husband's non-payment of alimony to coerce him into a reconciliation.

Relations between Dr. Bradford - 'Brad' - and ex-wife Paula are surprisingly romantic. They divorced because Brad hated being dragged into murder mysteries, to which mystery writer Paula is addicted. But through horse trainer Mike North, Brad is embroiled in the case of a jockey who died of "heart failure" during a race. As they pursue clues, Paula pursues Brad for remarriage, and assorted hoods pursue the Bradfords.—Rod Crawford <[email protected]>

Dr. Lawrence Bradford and Paula Bradford love each other, which may be why, as exes, he has stopped paying her court-ordered alimony. The reason they aren't married despite that love is incompatible lifestyles, especially in he always being pulled into her murder mystery story writing, the source material often straight out of the latest headlines. The latest of those headlines which piques her interest is the death of Luxury's jockey Eddie Sands during the middle of Luxury's latest race, the death ruled a heart attack, but which Paula believes was murder. She may get some inside scoop as Brad, as she refers to her ex-husband, has been asked by his acquaintance Mike North, Luxury's trainer, to examine Sands' dead body in anecdotal evidence also showing North that Sands' death was murder, that evidence including Brad having examined Sands only two weeks ago to find him more than healthy. Beyond the roles of the mysterious substance Brad finds on Sands arm, it which proves to be an innocuous non-toxic one but one which should not have been there, and a warning note which was found among Sands' possessions, Brad and Paula figure the key to finding out who murdered Sands is to follow the money, the race which was a two horse one, Luxury one of the two, meaning that those associated with the other one, War Cloud, benefiting the most from Sands' coincidental death. In the process, Brad gets implicated in another murder, the actual murderer eliminating others who know too much, Brad and Paula who may eventually fall into that category if they are on the right trail. With all these goings-on, Brad and Paula renegotiate the state of their relationship, which is an added complication to their investigation.—Huggo