Brooklyn is home to hundreds of years of history, much of which may be forgotten. Catherine Gigante-Brown's latest book takes places during such a time.
"Race Track" is a murder mystery set in 1880, centered around the Sheepshead Bay Race Track, which opened in June 1880 and became one of the most noted tracks in the United States.
The track was where a significant African-American community grew, as many were hired as grooms, jockeys, trainers. It is this little known part of Brooklyn history that fascinated Gigante-Brown enough to based her 13th book on.
"I always knew that there was an African-American population that established itself in the Sheepshead Bay area," Gigante-Brown told BK Reader. "Which was kind of weird because it's kind of very white, and I always wondered how it happened."
Gigante-Brown dove into researching the race track and the communities around it, including orphans and the poor — people she said society did not care much for. This created a dark underbelly situated around Sheepshead Bay's race track, and thus the storyline for her murder mystery.
"Race Track" focuses on three characters who become connected in this underbelly. There is a stable hand named Jack, who is really a woman passing as a man for her safety. There is Spiro, a young jockey, and Duds, a talented African American trainer. Some of the characters got their names and even stories, from real life Brooklynites. Gigante-Brown knows a man named Spiro, who owns a Greek restaurant in Park Slope with his brother, Teddy.
One day when eating there, Spiro told Gigante-Brown about an orphanage in Garrison where he and his brother grew up. His mother took him and Teddy back there to give the kids presents. Gigante-Brown wove that into the story.
She recently gave Spiro a copy of the book, which brought tears to his eyes.
Other Brooklyn neighborhoods make their appearance in "Race Track". The big houses of Bay Ridge are mentioned, along with parts of Coney Island, Red Hook's docks and Gravesend, where Gigante-Brown briefly lived.
Gigante-Brown grew up in Bay Ridge, and she and her husband divide their time between Brooklyn and Hudson Valley. She hopes the readers of her latest work will recognize themselves and their family's history in it.
"In this book there are three misfits who kind of find each other and become family," she said. "So I just hope people realize there's so much dissension in our society today and I hope people realize how far kindness goes."
