Description
Product Description
New York Times--bestselling author Felix Francis returns with his newest edge-of-your-seat horseracing thriller in the Dick Francis tradition.
Harrison Foster, a crisis manager for a London firm, is summoned to Newmarket after a fire in the Chadwick Stables kills six very valuable horses, including the short-priced favorite for the Derby. There is far more to the "simple" fire than initially meets the eye...for a start, human remains are found among 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 is a dysfunctional racing dynasty. 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. Can Harry solve the riddle before he is bumped off by the fallout?
Review
“Another trip to the winner’s circle for the talented Francis.”—
Booklist (starred review)
More Praise for Crisis
“…Francis (Pulse, 2017, etc.) continues to work unexpected and welcome changes on the racing franchise he inherited from his father.”—
Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Pulse
“[Felix Francis] has filled the family stable with more winners, including this one...wonderfully evocative...riveting throughout. Exciting at every turn.”—
Booklist(starred review)
“[A] moving fourth thriller...Francis devises a subtle, clever scheme for the heart of the mystery, and he excels at making his broken lead credible and sympathetic.”—
Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Felix Francis, a graduate of London University, is an accomplished outdoorsman, marksman, and pilot who has assisted with the research of many of his father's novels. The coauthor and author of numerous Dick Francis novels, most recently
Pulse, he lives in England.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1
May 2018
According to my business card I was one Harrison Foster, Legal Consultant, but I was known universally as Harry and my specialty was crisis management.
And today's crisis involved a murder-not that anyone knew it at the time.
ÒNewmarket!Ó I said. ÒBut I know nothing about horse racing. I hate it and donÕt even enter the office sweep on the Grand National.Ó
"No matter," ASW said. "You know about business and you're needed."
ASW was Anthony Simpson-White, founder, chairman, chief executive, owner of and driving force behind the Simpson White Consultancy Ltd-my Boss with a capital B-and he was standing in the doorway close to my desk.
"Can't one of the others go?" I asked. "Rufus loves the horses. He spends most of his salary at the bookies."
ASW shook his head. "Rufus is stuck in Italy with the wine people. You're my best available man."
I looked around at the other desks in what was called the Operatives' Room. Each of them was unoccupied.
Even on a Monday morning, I was his only available man.
"And anyway," he said, "the client has asked for you specifically."
"Oh," I said, somewhat surprised. "Who is the client?"
"It will all be in the brief. I'll send it to you by email while you're on your way. Take a fast train from King's Cross to Cambridge."
"Not Newmarket?" I asked.
"Cambridge is better. You'd have to change there anyway to get a local service. I'll get Georgina to arrange a car and driver to meet you."
Georgina was his PA: fifty-four years old, divorced with two grown-up sons, she was always smart, bright and happy. She was also ASW's mistress, not that either of them would ever admit to it. But we op