Shergar, the champion racehorse disappeared into an ominous Irish fog one February night in 1983 and was never seen again.

The scenario was something out of a Hollywood blockbuster: The gloomy dusk of the Irish countryside, balaclava clad men, machine guns and the Ballymany Stud, the Aga Khan’s world class farm with a champion inside “protected” by just a five barred gate and a simple latch.

But this was no fictional movie. This was real life and as Shergar, the Epsom Derby winning Wonder Horse, the Pegasus of Ireland moved about in his stall that night, little did he know the drama that was about to erupt outside in the stable yard.

Shergar’s kidnapping has baffled the police and the public for over 30 years creating countless theories: Was it the American mafia, was it a man with a grudge against Shergar’s high profile owner, was it Libya’s Colonel Ghadafi, or was the IRA behind the crime to secure more money for guns? And, where is Shergar resting now?: In a bog in County Leitrim, Ireland; on a remote farm near Ballinamore, Ireland, or is he buried in the far east after breeding and creating super horses for a wealthy sheik.

Besides the kidnapping and the frenzy it created, this book introduces the key players, places, races, and probes the “Troubles” that plagued Ireland at the time and were a key element of this story. And while accounts vary depending on which one you read the results sadly all come out the same: Shergar walked into the fog and disappeared forever.

Cindy Crank