Bad Apple

Bad Apple is dead. The world champion cutting horse has been assassinated in his paddock north of Billings. The owner of the great horse, Rex Pattee, is flooded with grief, and hires livestock detective Cletus Parr to find out who did it and why. Parr, a homespun sleuth with an office in the Billings stockyards, sets out to find out who shot the finest cutting horse ever known.

He talks to millionaire horse owners in western hats and jeans, with racetrack con artists, with people in all walks of life who enter rival horses in cutting horse events. It's slow going, and sometimes Parr riles the man who employs him, but he finally figures it out-- and just in time.