"Jamie Hutchison's career as a champion jockey came to a horrible end when the car he was driving spun out of control, killing a young boy. Now, after spending years in prison, he's been released with the hope of starting a new life. He has two problems, though: he can't forgive himself and he can't remember committing the crime." "Jamie's sister Pippa, a top horse trainer, would like Jamie to race horses again. Her attempts at helping him are honorable but she needs a lot of help herself. The owners of the horses she works with are moving their horses to rival Toby Priest, and she can't understand how he's turning slow, losing horses into winners." Toby Priest has his own worries. DI Jane Culpepper is asking a lot of questions about a girl who used to work for him, a girl who has just been murdered. Is it drug related like everyone's whispering?
A psychopath starts out by framing his jockey friend for the death of a young rider. He soon moves onto other targets and cold blooded death becomes his MO. Will the DC catch up with him before he kills the jockey and again blames him for everything? Fans of Dick Francis will enjoy another racing centered mystery by Francome.
Dariusdave is awaiting start of chemotherapy, Inside Track has been a wonderful distraction. Enjoyed from start to finish at times hard to put aside great to read John Francome again.
Gripping from the very start. If you like the world of horse racing or athletics, you will enjoy this book. Lots of people from different worlds intertwined in the story, recommended.
When I read the cover quote from The Irish Times stating "The Natural Successor to Dick Francis;" I really wanted to not like this book. But, that turned out to be impossible. So many seeming unrelated strands of story ended sewn together in a thrilling end. The world of British racing is far different than our American version of the sport. Just the fact that a flat jockey can go to prison and come out and become a world class jump jockey is unbelievable. Murder, mayhem and horse racing - what could be better?
John Francome, like Dick Francis, was a jockey and started writing racing mysteries/thrillers.
They're good. Where Francis tends to focus solely on his protaganist's character development, Francome presents a large cast of characters you come to know over the course of the story.
And it's not really a mystery, more of a thriller, but not like a scary horror thriller type, which i would hate. More of intriguing character developments that give a nice little thrill.
Rating of 3.5. Great story with plenty of pace and some twists and turns. Not in depth description, but detailed enough for any layman of horseracing. A bit confused at the end with number of characters though as listened to an audio version and left the book for a bit.
If the high stakes world of horse racing from the Dick Francis novels appeals to you, you may also enjoy this thrilling mystery featuring an ex-jockey trying to get his career back.
An enjoyable and enthralling read. While many of the twists were predictable it was still enjoyable to see how it all unravelled and see the fate of all the characters.