At Foxdale Farm jumping is the name of the game. They host jumping competitions, coach the art of show jumping and provide boarding facilities for the horses. The beautiful - even though not that profitable - farm is on prime land and someone is greedy; someone who will stop at nothing to satisfy their greed.
Steve Cline - an ambitious 21-year old - is Foxdale's barn manager. He dropped out of college two years ago for refusing to live his father's dream. His independence did not come cheap but his desire for freedom was worth the sacrifice. The horses is his life now - about 200 of them - at least till he figures out what he wants to do with his life.
A routine check on a colic horse in the early hours of the morning gets Steve into deep trouble. His narrow escape sets a whole series of events into motion and time is running out quickly as he tries to piece the mystery together.
I enjoy mysteries but I didn't think that the plot on this one was strong enough. Even though details of the plot is not revealed prematurely I didn't feel totally drawn in; I started losing interest before the mystery was revealed. Although I kept reading I felt a little bit like "Oh....Is that all?"
The characters don't develop very well - I like characters that travel a journey. There are several characters but I get the impression that they are more "space fillers" / "background noise" than anything else. Without them the main character would fall flat, but it doesn't add a sense of substance.
The romance is not very convincing and at times I almost felt like they might as well not have bothered.
The main detective initially seem on top of things and I felt like Steve was lucky to have him in his corner but halfway through the man never seems to be around when he's needed, and yet he is scorning Steve for any initiative that he takes to gather information on his own. The detective has been investigating the case and suspecting connections to other cases for quite a while but I get the impression that Steve was more key to solving his own case. The initial sense of the detective being competent changes into him seeming to be rather useless. It frustrated me a little and contributes to the book having a feel of the main character might as well having been the only character.
It was okay, I guess, but I might not remember this one very long or really recommend it to anyone - just okay.
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