It's 1956 and a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust has turned up murdered at the Morrow Park harness racing track.
With few clues and police at a dead end three Second World War veterans, all involved in the local harness scene, set out to solve the crime drawing upon their military training and experience.
That's the plot for Ghosts From The Holocaust, a mystery novel by first-time author and Smiths Falls resident Barry P. Hall. The 74-year-old is already working on a sequel and envisions a series with the three sleuths as the central characters.
Hall, who enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1961 and served six years as an electronics specialist, was born and raised in Coboconk and his sister lives on Buckhorn Lake. He never lived in Peterborough but was familiar with the city's harness racing history. That was a factor in his selection of Morrow Park as the backdrop for his whodunit.
"I didn't want to set the book in a large centre like Toronto, Montreal or Ottawa," Hall said.
"I was searching my brain to find where. I thought, Peterborough is a pretty good centre. It's nowhere near the population of those other places but it's still a good sized centre and the racing was very popular there back then. I remember it."
Hall used the Peterborough Agricultural Society, Trent Valley Archives and Peterborough Centennial Museum and Archives for his research. He has always enjoyed harness racing and used long-time horseman and friend Neil Curran as a resource.
"There is a fair bit about racing because that's where it happens and these guys are constantly at the track," he said.
Hall says he set out twice before to write a book in the science fiction genre but this is the first one he's finished. He's sold 100 copies in six weeks.
"I like mystery stories and I wanted to appeal to the widest audience I could possibly appeal to," he said. "Racing has a big following.
"I've written with a lot of humour throughout the book hopefully to appeal to people who like a little bit of humour. There is a small religious theme that runs through it as well," said Hall.
He's made a connection with Kawartha Downs, which opened in 1972 a year after the Morrow Park track closed in 1971.
"Kawartha will have copies of Mr. Hall's book available for sale on 2016 race nights and are working on having the author on hand one race night to autograph copies," stated a press release from the Fraserville track.
Hall will also be appearing at the Peterborough Spring Fling trade shows at the Evinrude Centre on March 13, April 17 and May 22.
His book is also available for $26.95 on Amazon.com or can be ordered through any major book store.
It is self-published through Author House.
By Mike Davies, Peterborough Examiner
Reprinted with permission of the thepeterboroughexaminer.com site