Red Grade
Jenn Herrington Book 3
Pamela Fagan Hutchins
Skipjack Publishing
December 2025
Red Grade by Pamela Fagan Hutchins is a legal thriller with a great story and compelling characters.
The main female lead, Jennifer Herrington, a former prosecutor, now a defense attorney, has been asked to quietly advise on a murder case. She agreed because she’s experienced, trustworthy, and not technically a suspect. That last part doesn’t last long.
The plot begins with polo star Victor Carvalho collapsing mid-match and is trampled to death at the Red Grade Ranch. Then his blood work comes back positive for sedatives, and the case turns into something else entirely, a murder with roots in underground betting, organized crime, decades-old polo rivalries, and a web of betrayals that Victor apparently spent years carefully constructing.
Jennifer is quietly consulting for the county attorney on the case when her husband Aaron gets arrested for the murder. The suspected weapon: veterinary sedatives stolen from his own clinic. The conflict of interest: immediate and total. Jennifer can’t represent him but does investigate.
People of interest begin piling up since the polo world is a small one, and everyone in it has something to hide. Suspects include a team owner with mob connections, a rival with a grudge going back to prep school, a wife who knew too much, and a stable hand who knew even more. Then there is Casey, Aaron’s newly discovered daughter, who may be more entangled in this mess than Jennifer is willing to consider while her marriage is already hanging by a thread.
This story has jealousy, greed, illegal gambling, theft, drugs, adultery, dishonesty, and broken trust. A bonus is that characters from all her other series are part of the plot. Readers will not want to put the book down until the very end when they find out who the true killer will be.
Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?
Pamela Fagan Hutchins: When I conceptualized this series I had some things in mind. Polo is big in the tiny town of Big Horn Wyoming. Everybody comes here for the beautiful summer weather, training and playing here all summer long. There is a lot of money that comes in. I wanted to write a book involving the polo community with something dastardly happening within the community that includes raising the stakes for Aaron.
EC: Why did your other heroine play a cameo role in this book?
PFH: All my characters collide from all the series. In the Delaney books the heroine of this series, Jenn Herrington, appears in a cameo, as well as the character Ava Butler. This book Red Grade was a giant collision of all my worlds and characters: Emily, Katie, are all from an old series I wrote 10 to 15 years ago. People who read Pamela are happy that I include characters from other series. I enjoy writing this big world of characters that overlap in some way in some tiny or huge collision of worlds. Red Grade was a huge collision of worlds, a reunion.
EC: Was the Jenn series based on yourself?
PFH: It is based on mine and my husband’s life here in Wyoming. I am an attorney by background, moved to Wyoming, and had my husband buy this old lodge. FYI: The Jenn books are spaced out because I was writing the Delaney books. I was raised in the South just as Jenn.
EC: How would you describe Jenn?
PFH: She is ambitious, ethical, fearful, judgmental, and feels hopeless in her situation. She is a Southern girl from Tennessee. As she pursues her law career, she feels hopeless about ever having a baby, the relationship with Araon, and her profession of being a prosecutor. She has an unpleasant relationship with her stepdaughter, Casey. There is a lot at stake for her in this novel.
EC: Why was Jenn compromised as a prosecutor?
PFH: She was retained by the prosecution to consult on this case. She is privy to certain information. She cannot defend for the other side because she would be playing off inside information, a conflict of interest.
EC: How would you describe Ollie, the prosecutor?
PFH: He likes to threaten people, manipulative, dismissive, unprofessional, unethical, defensive, and has no restraint. When he first appeared in the series he replaced someone worse than him. But power corrupts, and he feels he has potentially something to lose, he is afraid Jenn will run against him for prosecutor. The worst of him is coming out because he is scared for his job.
EC: What about Jenn’s husband, Aaron?
PFH: He is gentle, kind, caring, and a dog lover. In the beginning of the series, he and Jenn were struggling in their marriage. She never wanted a dog, which is too much of a commitment. He has skeletons in his past. There are things he never told her including that his high school girlfriend got pregnant, the supposed daughter showed up, buying the lodge without her permission, and the trouble he had with gambling while in college. Even though he has done things without telling her, he will be the sun and the moon for Jenn to come back to. They both need to be more open and trusting with each other because she has had secrets from him also. They must realize to trust each other enough about their darkest secrets.
EC: What about Casey, the supposed stepdaughter?
PFH: She is a blackmailer in a sense, uncaring, and self-absorbed. She has motives that do not care about anybody else. Casey is an unlikable problem. Because of her Jenn could be disbarred. Jenn went into the Judge knowing that she was misrepresenting the court to protect Casey and she could cut a deal. Jenn pretended she did not know and misrepresented the truth, allowing Casey to cut a deal on false pretenses. It was a big no-no.
EC: There is a quote in the book that seems to be a reference to a Shania Twain song. True?
PFH: You are referring to the lines, “Honey I’m home and I had a very hard day.” Yes, that was a Shania Twain reference. Once upon a time I did a talent show where I was working as a general counsel. I was talked into dressing up as Shania Twain and performing on stage with co-workers.
EC: Next book?
PFH: The next month will be out in June, the ninth book in the Patrick Flint series, titled Snow Ghost. It is a 1970s family drama adventure mystery story. He is climbing Mt. Rainier where people are trying to kill each other. In 2027 I hope to write more Delaney because I have a lot more stories with her, probably coming out in 2028.
I am writing a psychological thriller with “The Runaway series”, coming out in 2027. The first book is titled, Dead Water. It is about a woman who killed her husband, the premise of the series. She is running away to escape the police, the consequences, and her past as a steward on a luxury catamaran. It will follow the places my husband and I travel on our catamaran.
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