FIRST EDITION, Published by Michael Joseph, 1986, hardcover, 240 pages, condition: as new.
A classic mystery from Dick Francis, the champion of English storytellers. Jockey Kit Fielding's patron, Princess Casilia, is in trouble. Her invalid husband is being threatened by a ruthless business partner who wants to use the firm to manufacture arms. At the same time, some of the Princess's best horses are being killed - shot by a bolt. The only person the Princess can turn to is Kit - but he has problems of his own. His fiance Danielle has taken a shine to another man. And his old feud with Maynard Allardeck, racing steward and hereditary enemy of the Fieldings, might lose him his license to race. Between riding winners (and trying to save his impending marriage) Kit has somehow to find out and stop who is slaughtering the horses. But, as he's about to discover, the killer has more than horses in his sights . . . Praise for Dick Francis: 'As a jockey, Dick Francis was unbeatable when he got into his stride. The same is true of his crime writing' Daily Mirror 'Dick Francis's fiction has a secret ingredient - his inimitable knack of grabbing the reader's attention on page one and holding it tight until the very end' Sunday Telegraph 'The narrative is brisk and gripping and the background researched with care . . . the entire story is a pleasure to relish' Scotsman 'Francis writing at his best' Evening Standard 'A regular winner . . . as smooth, swift and lean as ever' Sunday Express Dick Francis was one of the most successful post-war National Hunt jockeys. The winner of over 350 races, he was champion jockey in 1953/1954 and rode for HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, most famously on Devon Loch in the 1956 Grand National. On his retirement from the saddle, he published his autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write forty-three bestselling novels, a volume of short stories (Field of 13), and the biography of Lester Piggott. During his lifetime Dick Francis received many awards, amongst them the prestigious Crime Writers' Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the genre, and three 'best novel' Edgar Allan Poe awards from The Mystery Writers of America. In 1996 he was named by them as Grand Master for a lifetime's achievement. In 1998 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2000. Dick Francis died in February 2010, at the age of eighty-nine, but he remains one of the greatest thriller writers of all time.
"A novel that races along with all the alacrity of one of Kit's mounts at the Devon or Ascot race courses. A subtle twist at the end makes the jaunt all the more enjoyable."
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
In Kit Fielding's breakneck world of steeplechase racing, the ultimate catastrophe strikes: Someone is shooting horses. As Kit races to stop the murdering madness, everyone in his upper-crust circle becomes a suspect--the princely rival who's trying to woo his woman, the personal enemy bent on ruining his family, not to forget the black-market arms dealer whose plans could imperil the globe. Much as the civilized side of him hates to admit it, Kit wonders if he should steel himself to the use of force...
