I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
During a wild mustang roundup by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a helicopter pilot is shot down. Sheriff Porter Beck and his deputy, Tuffy, are out on a ride when the incident happens, and discover this was a near-professional long range perfect sniper shot. Beck and Tuffy find a blue plastic horse buried with the brass when they find the shooter’s hiding place. This not only delays the already fraught BLM roundup, but kicks off an investigation that ultimately includes the FBI, Beck’s girlfriend, Charlie Blue Horse, and his dog-deputy, Bo. With wild horse activists, the BLM, and ranchers all at odds, the suspect pool only widens as the investigation continues. At the same time, Beck is balancing a reduced staff due to a new virus (Covid), an unexpectedly crabby girlfriend he thinks is gearing up to dump him, onset of night-blindness, his father battling dementia, and his sister disappearing while on an at-risk youth camping trip.
The Blue Horse is the third book in the Porter Beck series. However, I didn’t feel like I was missing anything by starting with book three, and I will definitely be going back for the first two. I liked Beck, Tuffy, and Charlie: they’re well developed people who feel real and complex, which is sometimes tricky if you expect readers to already know them from prior books. The depth of knowledge and detail into military procedures and a former military sniper’s background as well as the delicate politics of wild horse management in Nevada are really well done. Borgos clearly did thorough research and/or has specific experience (although at one point I wondered if he’s had Covid, because his descriptions missed a couple big symptoms that most of us who got it pre-vaccine had, especially the horrendous bone/body aches).
The multi-threaded plot is incredibly tight and fast paced, with new twists and facets that kept a chronic end-guesser like me wonderfully in the dark about “whodunit.” That’s probably the highest praise I can give for a mystery/thriller: I was completely engaged and had a hard time putting it down. As a horse lover and a visually imaginative reader, there were some tough scenes for me personally, but they weren’t gratuitous or unnecessary. I was thoroughly satisfied at the way Borgos brought all those different sub-plot threads together in the end. Overall, I thought The Blue Horse was an excellent book. I highly recommend for anyone who loves modern Westerns, thrillers, or cop mysteries, and I’m definitely going back for the first two in the series.
No Pithy Phrase 