Lucifer & the Great Baltimore Brawl
A sequel to Galloway’s Gamble, this adventure has the Texas Galloway brothers, Jamey and Jake, involved in a horseracing scheme that includes a whole cast of quirky characters and numerous incidents on their journey from San Francisco to Baltimore in 1873.
When their friends lose a prize racehorse named Phoenix in a racing swindle, the Galloways offer their help in retrieving the horse at a race known as the Baltimore Brawl. The plan is to pit a virtually untried Arabian stallion named Lucifer against wealthy Maryland racehorse enthusiast Cortland Van Brunt III’s horse, Grand Larceny, at Pimlico. Van Brunt, having already taken Phoenix, and determined to win the challenge at any price and possess both horses, plays dirty at every turn, and the Galloway party not only has to deal with their rival, but with myriad other problems on the cross-country trip to Baltimore, including damaged railroad tracks, train robbers, cheating gamblers, and missed train connections. It becomes a race against time as they must meet a deadline to register their horse in the race.
Rich in historical detail, full of misadventure and sometimes dangerous situations, with an assortment of zany characters, including a lady spiritualist, a fire-eating magician called The Amazing Alberto, and an ex-enslaved jockey, Weinstein knows how to spin a yarn. His lively writing moves the tale along at a good clip; he loads it with witty dialogue, good action scenes, a dash of romance, and some exciting cliffhangers. It’s a rollicking seriocomic jaunt that transports the reader on a fast track across the continent, culminating in a winner-takes-all match race, with two fabulous horses as the ultimate prize. Entertaining and fun.
