William Campbell Gault 
Come Die with Me [EPUB ebook] 

Brock gets caught in a dangerous triangle between a jockey, a mobster, and L.A.’s finest blonde Gloria Malone is a big woman with a little husband, and a problem only Brock Callahan can solve. Her jockey beau, Tip, has fallen in with a half-reformed gangster, and Gloria fears trouble for the pint-sized horseman. But as Brock quickly finds, L.A.’s criminals have more to fear from Tip than he does from them. The short man has a long mean streak, a girl on the side, and a couple of illegitimate children to boot. Even his horses don’t like him. Brock isn’t surprised when someone decides to end the little gremlin’s racing career once and for all—with a carving knife. The world of horse racing is buried under a layer of grime that’s thicker than the Santa Anita racetrack’s mud after a thunderstorm. To penetrate it, Brock will have to take the whip into his own hand and do whatever it takes to stay on the horse. Come Die With Me is the 4th book in the Brock Callahan Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.