Horsezone Reviews - Bold Blood

To kick off the Horsezone Reviews section, Haylie Martin reports on Bold Blood, a mystery novel by Lindy Kelly set amongst the New Zealand eventing scene.

After a spate of starting books, putting them down, going for another and so on and so forth (including Jilly Cooper’s Jump) I finally found a book the other night that I finished almost in one sitting!

Aided by the fact that the writing is in nice big print and the picture I painted in my mind of the ever so fetching lead guy Dom (hot, a little bit rugged and with a heart of gold - what more could a girl ask for?!), I read well into the wee hours of the morning, 3.45am to be precise.

The book revolves around Dr Caitlin Sutherland, daughter of a successful producer of eventers who is injured while preparing horses in a bid to secure a lucrative contract selling horses to America. With financial pressures on her mother’s business, being away from her Wellington boyfriend and lifestyle plus getting back to riding, Caitlin really has her work cut out for her and that’s before they start to sense some foul play from the competition.

Bold Blood touches on the sometimes tricky riding mother/daughter relationship, the indelible imprint horses leave on people and with Lindy’s deep horse knowledge she colourfully creates the characters we’ve all come across in the horse world and taps into the emotional rollercoaster that is owning horses.

Although the storyline maybe somewhat far-fetched, Bold Blood is a good no-brainer read and on Horsezone’s Four White Socks scale I give it a solid three.

Stay tuned for more Horsezone reviews with Jo and Haylie giving a Gen X vs Gen Y opinions of Jilly Cooper's Jump (when Haylie finishes it).

Bold Blood can be purchased through Equitainment.com.au – click here for more information.