Book detail

Another bestseller from the stable of three-time Edgar 'Best Novel' winner and MWA Grand-Master, Dick Francis together with his son Felix Francis. Dick Francis sadly died in February aged 89.

“Medic! Medic!”  I could see that my platoon sergeant was shouting but, strangely, the sound of his voice seemed muffled, as if I was in a neighbouring room to him rather than out here in the open.

British army captain Thomas Forsyth’s tour of Afghanistan is cut brutally short when he’s badly wounded by an IED – an Improvised Explosive Device – a roadside bomb. Tom’s world is torn apart by the injury – the army is his life. Six months of recuperation leave is a daunting prospect – but not as bleak as the probability of never rejoining his regiment.

Tom returns to Lambourn, to his childhood home, where his mother is a racehorse trainer and the ‘First Lady’ of British racing. Never having seen eye to eye with his parent, Tom doesn’t expect a hero’s welcome – but even he’s not prepared for the reception that awaits him.

When his mother’s prize horse finishes a vastly disappointing last place in a race it should have won, Tom discovers that the race training business is on the edge, and facing a threat far more dangerous than a run of bad form. Tom finds himself on a very different, but just as deadly, battlefield where his military skills are tested… kill or be killed?