Author and former jockey Sasscer Hill has been inspired by both her literary heroes and her real life when it comes to writing her horse racing thrillers.Anyone who knows me well knows what a loon I am about the late author Dick Francis. He was a champion jockey in the UK, who rode for the Queen Mother among others, before he became a bestselling author.My guest today, Sasscer Hill, shies away from comparisons to Francis, but I suspect her horse racing novels might appeal to Dick Francis fans among my listeners. Sasscer endeared herself to me by not only citing Francis during our interview, but also two of my other favorite authors; Robert B. Parker and Walter Farley. Our conversation felt like a match made in heaven. ;-)In other mystery novel news, It's a Mystery Podcast guest Peter Bartram (episode #27) has a new trilogy of books out this month in his Colin Crampton 1960s journalism series. You can learn more about the Morning, Noon, and Night trilogy at ColinCrampton.com.You can find out more about today's guest, Sasscer Hill, and all her books on her website SasscerHill.com. You can also find her on Twitter @SasscerHill.Click on any of the book covers to go to Sasscer's books on Amazon.Press play (above) to listen to the show, or read the transcript below. Remember you can also subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts. And listen on Stitcher.You can also click here to watch the interview on YouTube.Transcription of Interview with Sasscer HillAlexandra: Hi, mystery readers, this is It's a Mystery Podcast. I'm your host Alexandra Amor, and I'm here today with Sasscer Hill. Hi, Sasscer. Sasscer: Hi, how are you? Alexandra: I'm good. How are you? Sasscer: I'm feeling very well, thank you. Alexandra: Oh, good. Well, let me give our listeners an introduction to you. Author Sasscer Hill was involved in horse racing as an amateur jockey and has been a racehorse breeder for most of her life. She sets her novels against a background of big money, gambling, and horse racing. Her mystery and suspense thrillers have received multiple award nominations. Her first book in the Nikki Latrelle series, "Full Mortality" was nominated for both an Agatha and a Macavity Best First Book Award. Sasscer has written a new series for St. Martin's Minotaur. One of the new books in this Fia McKee series won the Carrie McCray 2015 Competition for First Chapter of a Novel, as well as the 2015 Claymore Award Nomination. The first book in the series, "Flamingo Road," was published April 18th, 2017, and we'll talk about that a little later in the interview.I want to start out first to talk about the Nikki Latrelle book. Tell us a little bit about Nikki and her background. Sasscer: Nikki is younger than my new heroine, Fia McKee. Nikki is only 23 years old, and her story is that her mother died when she was very young and left her in the hands of a stepfather, who was also, it turned out, once the mother was gone, she knew for sure that he was a pedophile, and before she'd only been...knew something was wrong. So what she did was in the middle of the night, she escaped out of her window and ran through the streets of Baltimore, you know, in bad areas, and made it to Pimlico Race Track and, climbed over the wire fence, and dropped down into the back stretch of Pimlico, and somehow managed to make a new life for herself because she couldn't go home. Alexandra: She was a teenager when this happened, correct? Sasscer: Yes, she was 13 when that happened. And the first story opens when she's 23 and she's become a jockey. Interestingly enough after I did the whole three series for Wildside Press, and I got the rights back, and I redid the covers and published the books myself. I wrote a prequel, which does go back to when Nikki was 13.I really enjoyed doing it because I had always had the story in the back of my mind. You know how when you're an author,