The Blue Horse by Bruce Borgos (2025)
A warm welcome back to Sheriff Porter Beck's third mystery/action adventure thriller. And once again the stalwart, nobody-to-be-trifled-with Beck is up to his neck in multiple villains amid the vast desert and mountain landscapes of Nevada. At the height of the raging COVID pandemic, Beck's faced with two wildly different murders related to the Bureau of Land Management's controversial roundups of wild horses. A helicopter pilot assisting the roundup from the air is shot down by an expert sniper. Then later the woman in charge of the Bureau's roundups is horribly slain, her tortuous death captured on a video........a video apparently posted online by the activist group protesting the roundups. Or was it?
As if Beck's plate isn't full enough, Detective Charlie Blue Horse, the love of his life, has grown oddly cold and argumentative. Beck's ailing 90 year old father is fast succumbing to dementia, his trusted deputy's contracted COVID and his sister Brinley has gone missing while searching forests and mountains for a deeply troubled teen boy. Also adding to his woes - the Sheriff's advancing affliction of night blindness, leaving him literally in the dark when the sun goes down.
Bruce Borgos, a superb born storyteller, expertly manages to bring all these elements together in a harrowing finale that'll keep you in enough suspense to stop every other activity (including sleep) until you've reached the last page. Yes, it's that good. You'll find yourself both worrying about and cheering on Beck and his vividly drawn 'Scooby' bunch of law enforcement teammates as they take on a lot more danger than they bargained for.
"The Blue Horse" works fine as a stand alone in the Porter Beck series, but I can guarantee upon finishing it, you'll want to catch up on the first two right away.
As if Beck's plate isn't full enough, Detective Charlie Blue Horse, the love of his life, has grown oddly cold and argumentative. Beck's ailing 90 year old father is fast succumbing to dementia, his trusted deputy's contracted COVID and his sister Brinley has gone missing while searching forests and mountains for a deeply troubled teen boy. Also adding to his woes - the Sheriff's advancing affliction of night blindness, leaving him literally in the dark when the sun goes down.
Bruce Borgos, a superb born storyteller, expertly manages to bring all these elements together in a harrowing finale that'll keep you in enough suspense to stop every other activity (including sleep) until you've reached the last page. Yes, it's that good. You'll find yourself both worrying about and cheering on Beck and his vividly drawn 'Scooby' bunch of law enforcement teammates as they take on a lot more danger than they bargained for.
"The Blue Horse" works fine as a stand alone in the Porter Beck series, but I can guarantee upon finishing it, you'll want to catch up on the first two right away.
5 Stars (*****). A Don't Miss' read for the summer (or beyond.)
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