Gene Hawkins, investigator, suffers from 'the fat black slug of depression' and is on the edge of doing away with himself. He doesn't really want to know about the third stallion of international standing that has disappeared in kentucky, or about the boat trip on the Thames above Henley that his boss invites him on; but rather abruptly he becomes involved anyway, with the disappeared horses, and with a charming lass, too.
Francis' flair for painting a real, complete person in a few paragraphs, widely separated; his spare, effective, seemingly effortless style; his great stories, his way of creating and keeping up the tension, the emotions; the detection/solving of puzzles; it is all very well done, as always in this period of his writing (this book is from 1967). One star taken away because I felt that the depressed bit was taken a bit too far, overshadowed the story too much; but a most enjoyable book anyway.
