Then he's nuts about the case- whips, boots and all. Rainbow has to cope with a depressive ex jockey , no longer able to ride, who's a compulsive gambler; a mister clean of racing who's not all he appears; a beautiful Florence Nightingale of a woman intent on saving gamblers from themselves; hie erstwhile mate, a one -legged killer who's found God; the case building to an unexpected climax in which Rainbow has to rely on the skills his aunt Rube's taught him- how to dance his way out of trouble.
Mister Rainbow's a retro detective brought up on Jimmy Cagney movies, the gangsterdom of America in the days of Al Capone. It's reminiscent of Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade and Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe. But with an added something that caused literary critic Barry Oakely to describe him as a "P I with depth "...