[Pet Health Admin]

"Sadly, death at the races is not uncommon. However, three in a single afternoon was sufficiently unusual to raise more than one eyebrow."

It's the third death on Cheltenham Gold Cup Day that really troubles super-sleuth Sid Halley. Last seen in 1995's Come to Grief, former champion jockey Halley knows the perils of racing all too well-but in his day, jockeys didn't usually reach the finishing line with three .38 rounds in the chest. But this is precisely how he finds jockey Huw Walker-who, only a few hours earlier, had won the coveted Triumph Hurdle.

Just moments before the gruesome discovery, Halley had been called upon by Lord Enstone to make discreet inquiries into why his horses appeared to be on a permanent losing streak. Are races being fixed? Are bookies taking a cut? And if so, are trainers and jockeys playing a dangerous game with stakes far higher than they are realistic?

Halley's quest for answers draws him even deeper into the darker side of the race game, in a life-or-death power play that will push him to his very limits-both professionally and personally.
Customer Review: Racecourse corruption
Former jumps jockey, now private investigator, Sid Halley, is contacted too late, by a jockey, Huw Walker, who confides that he fears for his life. Walker had left messages on Halley's answering machine but he doesn't receive them until after Walker's body is found, shot three times, at a racecourse. Halley had been contacted by Lord Enstone, a rags to riches life peer to find out why his good horses were consistently beaten as their form and condition should have made them winners. As Halley investigates the horses' apparently bad form, he becomes involved in an elaborate plot to diddle the betting public through an online betting system. Halley and his girlfriend Marina are both attacked and warned off further investigations by an unknown person which only serves to arouse Halley's anger and determination to proceed with the case. As an ex jockey, author Dick Francis writes with great perception and an obvious inside knowledge of the inner workings of the world of horse racing and has a very pleasing, simple style of writing which engages the reader's attention from page one. It's an excellent read!.
Customer Review: If you do not know Dick Francis yet, it's time
I've lost count of how many of these I read over the years, and rarely could I put the book down of an evening. Although Francis is somewhat formulaic and his hero remains magically in mystery novel youth, the novels stay with the times. Thus, much of this story turns on betting on line in cyber casinos and DNA tracing of baddies on motorcycles as well as contemporary high fashion ( rather a neat trick of detecting as Sid Hally learns the cost of shoes and purses filling a lady's closet). The usual jaunt around the English countryside and visits to the track, the manly genteel life of Sid's ex father-in-law retired admiral and the business of modern London all create a mix of character and setting that gives a fast read while assuring us that right wins in the end and that there is still a value to be placed on pesonal integrity. Dick Francis may not be turning them out at the rate he was in the late seventies/early eighties but this one shows he is still as good at what he does.


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