The Blue Horse is the third Porter Beck western procedural mystery by Bruce Borgos. Released 8th July 2025 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 368 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
There are a number of well known and popular western police procedural series, from Leaphorn & Chee to Longmire, many more. This series fits very well into the milieu and compares favorably. Sheriff Beck is strong, moral, and cares about his town and fellow citizens. He's not perfect, but he tries his best to take care of his colleagues and his family. His romantic partner Charlie (female) is back in this novel, as well as his working dog partner Bo, who is a Very Good Boy.
Covid, environmental protests/natural resource management, politics, and police work are central themes. Although it's the third book in the series, it works perfectly well as a standalone, with the understanding that relationships between the returning, ensemble cast have developed during the series and there will be slight spoilers for earlier books if read out of order.
Well written, tightly plotted, and engaging. There are some fairly graphic scenes of violence, and the language is R-rated (but nothing too egregious).
Four stars, likely higher for fans of western police procedurals. It would be a good choice for public library acquisition, home library, or a binge/buddy read.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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