This is a good horseracing thriller. It is Francis's 31st mystery book set against a racing background.
I always enjoy a Dick Francis book. As I no longer have the copy and read it a while ago, I don't remember any details. However, I've never read one I didn't like.
Delightful...fast pased,tense...resourceful, transporting racehorses
to the course is big business for x-jockey Freddie Croft. he runs his fleet of vans and their drivers ith tight reins,stricct security and everything on the up & up. But one driver breaks a cardinal rule - never pick up a hitchhiker - an the results are fatal...for the hitchhiker. A corpse is not only bad for business its bad for FReddie's long termsurvival, one corpse leads to number two--and to strange nighttime stalkers and unseen sonspirators who are weaving a web of deceit & danger that Freddie might never escape...
to the course is big business for x-jockey Freddie Croft. he runs his fleet of vans and their drivers ith tight reins,stricct security and everything on the up & up. But one driver breaks a cardinal rule - never pick up a hitchhiker - an the results are fatal...for the hitchhiker. A corpse is not only bad for business its bad for FReddie's long termsurvival, one corpse leads to number two--and to strange nighttime stalkers and unseen sonspirators who are weaving a web of deceit & danger that Freddie might never escape...
YA-- From the first paragraph, the action grabs readers and plunges ahead like one of the thoroughbreds that is such valuable secondary characters in every Francis novel. As usual, a particular aspect of the British racing industry is carefully profiled, in this case the job of transporting horses. Former jockey Freddie Croft is the owner of just such a business, and must confront the discovery that his vans have been used for some very unusual smuggling. Freddie discovers two separate plots to victimize race horses through disease; along the way a bit of romance begins to enrich his life, a trusted employee is murdered, computer files are wiped out, and a malicious villain destroys Freddie's home with an ax. Clues abound, with those needed to solve the mystery satisfyingly mixed in with enough red herrings to keep readers happily guessing. Additional plot enrichment is provided by weaving in the latest in computer technology and epidemiology. A dependable writer will satisfy his YA fans once again.
