Foxboro, MA— July 28, 2003—The world of carriages and driving take center stage in “The Fifth Wheel,” a suspenseful new novel written by Barbara Weir, one of the founders of the American Driving Society (ADS).

Set at the annual outing of the “American Carriage Society,” the novel focuses on the mysterious death of an influential patron of equestrian sports, whose years of driving experience don’t save him and his four-in-hand team from plunging off a cliff.

Published by Xlibris Corporation, the novel is replete with references to the world of driving including detailed explanations of how carriages are built and work, their history and even tangential subplots involving show jumping and Olympic team selection. It provides a comfortable and familiar setting to those involved in driving and an easy-to-understand introduction to equestrian sport’s most pristine discipline to the previously uninitiated—all within a tale of drama, suspense and Mozart’s chamber music.

“As someone who has spent my adult life involved in horses and driving, I’ve long wanted to bring our sport to more people,” said Weir, a former president of the American Tandem Club and a long-time American Driving Society-recognized judge. “I thought bringing driving to new audiences through a novel that could be enjoyed by everybody was probably the best way to accomplish this.”

Barbara Weir, a resident of rural Hunterdon County, New Jersey, recently retired and sold her New York City business, All-Tame Animals, Inc., which provides animals for the media in general and the Metropolitan Opera in particular. She has directed plays and musicals for Community Theater at the Hunterdon Museum of Art in Clinton, New Jersey and has spent many years judging and driving her Tandem of grey horses at competitions in the popular sport of Carriage Driving.

The book sells for $28.50 for hardcover and $19.50 for paperback (shipping included) and can be purchased by mailing a check, made out to Weir Consulting, Inc., to The Fifth Wheel, c/o Weir Writing, 477 Byram Kingwood Road, Frenchtown, NJ 08825 or online by going to www.xlibris.com/bookstore, clicking on search and then typing in The Fifth Wheel.

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