Waltz into Darkness - Cornell Woolrich

Louis is waiting for his intended to appear in New Orleans after they've exchanged a few letters. There's a few things that strike him as odd, but nothing really prepares him for the day when she drains his bank account and disappears without a trace. After that, he has to verify if she was really who she claimed and approaches the sister, only to find his worst fears realized. His wife was a fake, and it seems his intended was done away with on her way to New Orleans. A private investigator is hired, and Louis is suddenly not sure what to do with himself.

I was willing to give Louis a pass on not spotting the red flags at the beginning. Sure, they were lined up for me all neat and tidy, but I was giving him the benefit of the doubt and saying he missed them until after the fact. The man destroyed all my sympathy for him with everything he did after that point.

I've read a lot of old gothic romances in the past. If you're not familiar, they usually involve a not very smart woman getting herself into stupid situations. That's what happened here, except it was Louis. And he did it over and over again. Probably more times than any of the women in the gothics I read. He really was his own worst enemy and thus deserved everything he kept walking back into.

The end of this book made me physically angry. The lack of real justice bothered me, because it involved the one character I actually cared about. The writing itself was smooth and easy to read. I just hated the plot and the characters.

My Dancing White Horses - Alois Podhajsky

Horses are one of my favorites animals. Always have been. Inside of that group, the Lipizzaner stands apart as a breed of mystery and elegance. I didn't know a lot of details about them, just that they were skilled in various steps, notably "airs above the ground." Recently, I'd heard of General Patton assisting in the reunion of the Lipizzaner stud with the rest of the herd toward the end of WWII, and I knew I had to look into that! At that point, I was on the hunt for just the right book, and I found this autobiography. 

Colonel Podhajsky's life was these horses. From the moment he was assigned to their care, he took the assignment seriously. More than once his own health hung in the balance, but he did everything in his power to shield these horses from harm. Appealing to the occupying U.S. Army for help in retrieving the Austrian horses was a bold move, but it paid off.

After the war, the horses went on tour. They traveled many places and dealt with a lot of different levels of accommodations. Different treatments and celebrations of horses were shown to him, and every culture adored his horses. But it wasn't until 1955 that he was able to take them back where they belonged: to Vienna. And that's where they stay.

I really liked this book. I liked how Podhajsky was humble and grateful for every bit of assistance he was granted, and the small gifts and expressions of gratitude were just as welcome to him as the ones that came from heads of state. I loved how he cared for the horses and did everything he could to save them. I thought it was wonderful how those horses were a bridge for those countries in the postwar years.

The only downside I can see is that this book was hard to find. I found a decently priced used copy, but I had to sacrifice a bit on condition. My binding was scary, and the dustcover was beat up. It's a shame, because this was a really good book. The pictures in it were crisp, and there were multiple pictures (clear, in motion pictures) of the horses in the middle of some of their jumping movements. This book needs to be digitized for future generations. Especially those that love horses! Good Book!