Book description
When amateur jockey and pilot Lord Henry Grey launches himself into a
career in the bloodstock market, he finds more danger and excitement
than he'd ever anticipated. Henry immediately takes to his glittering
new world and, when he meets the glamorous Gabriella in Italy, is sure
he's hit the good life. That is, until a horse mysteriously dies in
transit and a colleague vanishes. Then Grey discovers that both his
predecessors went missing in mysterious circumstances and begins to
doubt the wisdom of his career change. Either he has to turn detective
or his own disappearance could be next . . .
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.
