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Chico is a repeated deus ex machina as Sid gets into jams as his investigations get closer to finding all the baddies and the evidence necessary for right to carry the day. What a pleasure to find a comfy spot, tell the world to go away for awhile and settle down with the new mystery featuring Sid Halley.

I did feel this entry in the series was maybe a trifle more scattered and difficult to follow than most of the others. I decided to make reading her entire collection a part of my reading challenge for the next couple of years (she has a HUGE collection), as well as a way to pay tribute to my mum, who was such a voracious reader. But when Marina expresses discontent in their marriage and takes Saskia to visit her parents because her father is dying, Sid wonders if she'll ever come back.However, the very next morning, the friend’s stable yard is torched, horses killed, and then the friend is found dead. For over forty years, the London University grad helped father Dick Francis (31 Oct 1920 – 14 Feb 2010), ex-jockey known for horse-racing mysteries. The first three were written by Dick Francis, but after a long life and very prolific writing career, he rode off into the sunset. However, the very next morning, Gary's stable yard is torched, horses killed, and Gary has disappeared. Jockey-turned-private eye Sid Halley was last seen in Refusal after losing his left hand in a nasty fight with even nastier opponents; for his troubles, he ended up with a prosthetic hand and a wife who who insisted that he quit his detecting work.

An ex jockey friend Gary Bremner contacts Sid and begs him to drive to his stables as he feels his life is in danger, but Sid tells him he can’t that if he needs him he should drive to him.With his mind elsewhere, Sid poo-poos the situation and puts the guy on hold at least for a couple of days. Dick Francis novels were a familiar fixture in our household when I was growing up, as both my parents loved his books. Someone is finding a way to rig horse races for their own financial gain and are blackmailing both jockeys and trainers to further their plot. He soon finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy that cuts to the very heart of the integrity of British horse racing, and then danger comes closer to home than ever. It was completely unexpected, but equally confusing I felt like they used too much niche lingo that I struggled to get it grips with it.

While I felt that the story started slowly and presented a more introspective Sid than that of earlier stories, the pace did pick up and engaged me in Sid's adventures. Sid Halley is back and he has a new left hand having had a transplant since his last appearance in Refusal. With enough backstory to fill in the blanks and enough twists and turns to keep you saying "just one more chapter", I was in Sid Halley's world and enjoying every page. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy - and keep me in mind when the next one drops.Biography: Felix Francis studied Physics and Electronics at London University and then spent seventeen years teaching Advanced-Level Physics. The story line should have packed some intrigue but a lot of pages were devoted to Sid's marital woes and I don’t know, it was just boring. This one gallops apace, the excellent Chico Barnes makes an appearance too and I simply raced through it and couldn’t put it down. What Sid discovers is that it is one agent in particular responsible for the fraud, and he brings in Chico Barnes to help after he had been threatened.

As a side plot, there is some discussion about Sid's transplanted left hand and his feelings about it, as well as some marital tension regarding that hand. But when they start telling the jockey and trainers which horses to lay off in specific races, that is illegal. Here is what I think--the son is getting better, and maybe his handicap is more that what is acceptable in 2020 is really different from what worked in 1970.I understand I can change my preference through my account settings or unsubscribe directly from any marketing communications at any time. Then when that friend turns up dead, with his horses slaughtered, and his property set alight- Sid find himself wading through conspiracies, agendas, secrets, and plots to find out what had happened and uncover the culprit/s. As it turns out, he should have been more fired up; the next day, the guy's stable and a few horses go up in flames - and then, not long after he meets with Sid to explain what's going on, the man himself is found hanged.

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