The details of the horse with his ability to do the dressage movement called "airs above the ground" is woven into the story, which sometimes interrupts the suspense but it always gets back to the mystery soon enough. The atmosphere there is distinctly Gothic. Vanessa and Timothy, on the trail of the stallion, stay in an old castle, now a hotel. More than that, look at the word dead in there. In true Stewart fashion, we learn plenty about circus life, dressage and life in an Austrian village. It’s a harsh land a good place for stories about keyboard cowboys. She and the boy, Timothy, visit the scene of the fire at the circus and stumble into a web of stolen goods, international drug smuggling and the disappearance of a famed Lipizzaner stallion after his groom died in the fire. Naturally she fears the worst: that he is with another woman. Vanessa has just seen his picture in a newsreel story about a circus fire in Austria. Actually she herself is on a mission to track down her husband who is supposedly in Stockholm on business but is worryingly out of touch. Vanessa March has agreed to escort her best friend's 17 year old son to Austria.
It was nominated for an Edgar Award and I have been following her novels through a couple of decades. This one came from the 1965 list of My Big Fat Reading Project.
KEYBOARD COWBOY NEUROMANCER SERIES
I have been reading this series for a while and only have eight more to go.Īirs Above the Ground, Mary Stewart, Fawcett Publications, 1965, 255 pp I was glad to be back fighting terrorism with Gabriel and his team. A great plot twist just when the Office (Israeli intelligence) thinks they have won ramps the plot up even further. Though Gabriel is in no shape to attempt death defying moves, he can run the operation. As always in Silva's books, the plotting is superb. Involved are Hezbolla, the Vatican Bank, and a huge act of terrorist sabotage. It is a delicate matter so Gabriel is on the job again. It looks like a possible suicide but neither Gabriel nor the Pope's private secretary think so. Of course, someone dies, a woman, in St Peter's. He is getting some well deserved rest from his last mission, actually restoring a painting at the Vatican, a Caravaggio. Gabriel Allen, the Israeli assassin, and his wife are living in Rome. I keep thinking I am going to get tired of Silva's formula. The Fallen Angel, Daniel Silva, HarperCollins, 2012, 464 pp