From Publishers Weekly
His 30th novel, an 11-week PW bestseller in cloth, displays Francis's trademarks: seamless plotting, believable characters, suspense and a bang-on horse-racing setting, in this case featuring a veterinary surgeon plagued by a series of mysterious equine deaths.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Mass Market Paperback
edition.
From School Library Journal
YA-- A chance encounter leads Peter Darwin, a British Foreign Service officer newly posted back to England, to an involvement with the problems of a Gloucestershire vet who has lost several race horses during or after surgery. Francis's horse and racing trademarks are present here, as are his characters, who in this author's skilled hands, become as comfortable and familiar as members of one's family. The book conveys a strong sense of right and wrong, is fun to read, has an upbeat ending, and displays the same storytelling magic as always. It's a wonderful example of a book that bridges the gap between the YA and the adult novel. For horse lovers and armchair adventurers everywhere. --Pam Spencer, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
After a superfluous opening episode in Miami, Francis begins his 30th thriller by packing his Foreign Service hero Peter Darwin back to Cheltenham, where Peter spent his own early years, to solve the riddle of who burned down the office of his new friend Ken McClure's veterinary practice, who was the dead man found inside, and why and how so many of the horses that Ken has recently attended have died on (or awfully near) the operating table. Good questions, all of them- -their mystery intensified by an unusually nasty second murder--and Peter is a likable detective (plus an engaging suitor of a bishop's daughter), but not a patch on Francis's brooding early heroes. The solution, which Peter helps construct from his own Cheltenham memories, is, like the whole exercise, a little pro forma, but the bestselling author's touch with a story is as sure as ever, and there's more about horses (though dead rather than quick) than in any Francis in years. --
Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
Peter Darwin was hoping for some quiet leave from the Foreign Office. Instead he found himself in the village of his childhood - at the service of a veterinary surgeon whose operating theatre was rapidly acquiring an unwanted reputation as an abattoir.
The sudden unexplained death of a string of valuable racehorses from one small area in Gloucestershire was a mystery the police couldn`t solve. But Darwin was local. He remembered the people and what was at stake...
And now he know enough to get himself killed...
About the Author
Dick Francis has written more than forty international bestsellers and is widely acclaimed as one of the world’s finest thriller writers. His awards include the Crime Writers’ Association’s Cartier Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the genre, and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Tufts University of Boston. In 1996 Dick Francis was made a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master for a lifetime’s achievement and in 2000 he was awarded the CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. Sadly he died in 2010.