Blood Sport

Gene Hawkins sleeps with a Luger under his pillow and lives four flights up so people will be short of breath when they get to him. He has a dangerous profession that he refers to as interfering with the planting of spies in certain government offices and research labs. He never minds taking chances, because he’s clinically depressed anyway. If he dies on the job, he figures it’ll save him the bother of shooting himself one of these days. He’s just the man for an impossible assignment, and his boss hands him find Chrysalis, a stallion worth £500,000 that just went missing. The owner lost another horse in similar circumstances five years ago, and this time he wants a no-holds-barred search. Insurance investigators and policemen don’t get results. Gene’s hunt takes him across the ocean to a Kentucky stud farm, a Wyoming dude ranch and an eerie Arizona dessert. Although lonely and miserable, Gene has a wry sense of humor that keeps his depression from being a burden on the people he meets. He attracts friends and stirs up women, especially the ones he doesn’t dare sleep with. ( Amazon customer.)