Book description
Gene Hawkins woke on the first day of his holiday with his hand on the
Luger under his pillow, and a ringing in his ears. His boss was on the
phone, inviting him on a family boat trip up the Thames. Keeble didn't
fraternise with his employees unless he wanted something. What he wanted
now was for Gene to spend three weeks looking for kidnapped stallions in
Kentucky. He wouldn't take no for an answer. But before the afternoon
was out Gene's survival skills were called on cloer to home -
catapulting him into a maelstrom of blackmail and murder that would turn
the blue grass of Kentucky to red...
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 Allen 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 89, but he
remains one of the greatest thriller writers of all time.
