Felix Francis is back with another edge-of-your-seat thriller, in the classic Dick Francis tradition. Undercover investigator Jeff Hinkley is assigned by the British Horseracing Authority to look into the activities of a suspicious racehorse trainer, but as he’s tailing his quarry through the Cheltenham Racing Festival, the last thing he expects to witness is a gruesome murder. Could it have something to do with the reason the trainer was banned in the first place—the administration of illegal drugs to his horses? Then many more horses test positive for prohibited stimulants, and someone starts making demands, threatening to completely destroy the integrity of the racing industry. In order to limit the damage to the sport, it’s critical that Jeff find the perpetrator . . . but he’ll soon learn he’s up against someone who will stop at nothing to prevail.
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I am a big fan of the Francis family of writers, both the late Dick & Mary, and the son of two who writes, Felix. The last Francis outing I truly enjoyed was Dead Heat. Dead Heat was published in 2008, just two years prior to Dick Francis' death. Felix and Dick collaborate on the book, and Dick's main collaborator, his wife Mary, passed away eight years' before, so she was not involved unless before the fact.
I would think Felix the driving force behind Dead Heat, but Felix helmed Damage solo, because it was published in 2014, two years after Dick's passing at the age of 89. Damage has two plot threads, one major, and one, a “minor” complement, but while the minor piece was somewhat awkward and disturbing in content, I found it to be a bit more rewarding than the key plot surrounding horseracing.
As I reserched this review, I realized that Damage was the maiden voyage of the Jefferson Hinkley series, and that having enjoyed Front Runner a lot, knowing now that it was outing segundo, it makes sense that Francis was developing his key players. Lydia, Quentin, Faye and Kenneth are all very interesting to read about, whereas the BHA elements slighly less so.
Maybe I am getting to be more of a sentimentalist as I get older. Still, the sequel, Front Runner was exciting, and not just for the family plot. Further, I read the preview for Francis' Guilty, Not Guilty, and it looks to be very good, indeed. I hope I'm not being too critical of Damage. Francis' writing is good. I think maybe he just took a little long getting to the great denouement without shifting gears a whole lot.
That occured with his dad's books now and then, with his dad being one of the greats.
Featured Series
3 primary booksJefferson Hinkley is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2014 with contributions by Felix Francis.
