Dick Francis Novel
46 total works
When defence barrister Geoffrey Mason hears the judge's guilty verdict, he quietly hopes that a long and arduous custodial sentence will be handed down to his arrogant young client. That Julian Trent only receives eight years seems all too lenient. Little does Mason expect that he'll be seeing Trent again much sooner than he'd ever imagined.
Setting aside his barrister's wig, Mason heads to Sandown to don his racing silks. An amateur jockey, his true passion is to be found in the saddle, on a thoroughbred, pounding the turf. But when a fellow rider is brutally murdered - a pitchfork driven through his chest - the prime suspect is champion jockey Steve Mitchell and the evidence is overwhelming. Mason, reluctant to heed Mitchell's pleas for legal advice, soon finds himself at the centre of a sinister web of threat and intimidation and is left fighting a battle of right and wrong, and more immediately, a battle of life and death... his own.
'Felix Francis' novels gallop along splendidly' Jilly Cooper
‘From winning post to top of the bestseller lists’ Sunday Times
Harrison Foster is a lawyer by training but works as a crisis manager for a London firm that specializes in such matters. Summoned to Newmarket after a fire in the Chadwick Stables slaughters six very valuable horses, including the short-priced favourite for the Derby, Harry (as he is known) finds there is far more to the ‘simple’ fire than initially meets the eye. For a start, human remains are found amongst the equestrian ones in the burnt-out shell. All the stable staff are accounted for, so who is the mystery victim?
Harry knows very little about horses, indeed he positively dislikes them, but he is thrust unwillingly into the world of Thoroughbred racing where the standard of care of the equine stars is far higher than that of the humans who attend to them.
The Chadwick family are a dysfunctional racing dynasty, with the emphasis being on the nasty. Resentment between the generations is rife and sibling rivalry bubbles away like volcanic magma beneath a thin crust of respectability.
Harry represents the Middle-Eastern owner of the Derby favourite and, as he delves deeper into the unanswered questions surrounding the horse’s demise, he ignites a fuse that blows the volcano sky-high, putting him in grave jeopardy. Can Harry solve the riddle before he is overcome by the toxic emissions from the eruption and is bumped off by the fallout?
‘As usual with a Francis, once I opened the book, I didn’t want to put it down… Felix’s resolution is darker and more shocking than his father would ever have contemplated, but reflects grittier times and changing tastes in fiction. Now, what am I going to do for the next 12 months until the next one?’ Country Life
‘The latest annual offered from Felix Francis shows he has largely escaped from the shadow of his late father… He has become his own man as a purveyor of murder mysteries' The Racing Post
Praise for Felix Francis's novels:
'The Francis flair is clear for all to see' Daily Mail
'From winning post to top of the bestseller list, time after time' Sunday Times
'The master of suspense and intrigue' Country Life
'A tremendous read' Woman's Own
Movie director Thomas Lyon came to Newmarket to rake the ashes of an old Jockey Club scandal for a new Hollywood film. Too late, he found himself listening to a blacksmith's dying confession. Found himself watching as the past came violently back to life.
Capturing the shockwaves over one woman's macabre death nearly thirty years before is drama. But a frenzied knife attack on the set of Unstable Times is definitely attempted murder. Who stood to gain from the threats? Between truth and shadowy fiction, Thomas Lyon already knew too much.
Following the real story could mean the difference between life and death. His own . . .
'Still the best bet for a winning read' Mail on Sunday
'A marvellous storyteller and an immaculate craftsman' Daily Mail
Derek Franklin is an injured jockey. The last fence at Cheltenham has left him on crutches. But his brother's death means even bigger trouble. He inherits a jewellery business, a mistress - and some very shadowy business associates.
Franklin likes to play things straight. But with GBP1.5 million in diamonds gone missing, he finds honesty can be a deadly virtue. His only hope of survival is to identify his brother's mysterious enemies . . .
Money hungry men who scorn the good and despise the straight . . .
'For sheer style and pace Francis has few equals' Sunday Express
The multi-million pond Stratton Park racecourse in Wiltshire faces ruin in the hands of a squabbling family. Lee Morris, architect, builder and father of six healthy sons, is reluctantly drawn into the turmoil.
As the Strattons fight for control in the boardroom, Lee finds himself forced to take sides. Until the day a massive explosion on the racecourse threatens his own and his children's lives.
Suddenly it isn't just the future of Stratton Park that's at stake . . .
'A writer of champion class' The Times
There are two worlds in racing. Winning and losing. Private detective Sid Halley has gone from one to the other - fast. First his career as a jockey ended when he lost his hand in a fall. Then his wife said a cold good-bye. Now he's on the trail of thugs who crush losers. With vicious pleasure.
These are people who aim to win - at any price. There's a syndicate of owners with a sideline in violent kidnapping. And Trevor Deansgate, a bookmaker whose hatred of favourites goes one deathly step too far...
For the sake of his health, Halley had better return to winning ways. Because to lose is to die...
"A Dick Francis novel from the author of Dick Francis's GAMBLE"--
