Driving Force

Jockey Freddie Croft thought he'd left the perils behind him when he retired from the jump game. These days he was happy to transport horses from their stables to the races. Until one of his drivers picked up an unlicensed passenger. And brought him back dead. The corpse on the doorstep was Freddie's unwelcome introduction to the shadowy, big money conspiracy which muscled into his business and started to threaten his life. But Freddie was a fighter, and winning was in his blood...

First identify the danger. Then beat them out of sight.

Dick Francis, CBE, has written 41 novels, a volume of short stories, the biography of Lester Piggott and his autobiography. He has received many awards, including the Crime Writers' Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger. The Mystery Writers of America have given him three Edgar Allan Poe awards and made him a Grand Master for a lifetime's achievement.

During a long career that has encompassed stage, TV and cinema, Tony Britton has become a...

Publishers Weekly

Francis's first-rate thriller about the British horse-racing scene--a 10-week PW bestseller--portrays a former steeplechase jockey who learns that his horse transportation firm is implicated in a drug smuggling operation. (Feb.)

Dick Francis was one of the most successful postwar steeplechase jockeys, winning more than 350 races and riding for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. After his retirement from the saddle, he published an autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write more than forty acclaimed books, including the New York Times bestsellers Even Money and Silks. A three-time Edgar Award winner, he also received the prestigious Crime Writers Association s Cartier Diamond Dagger, was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, and was awarded a CBE in the Queen s Birthday Honours List in 2000. He died in 2010 at age eighty-nine, and remains among the greatest thriller writers of all time.

Felix Francis is the younger of Dick Francis s two sons. Over the last forty years Felix has assisted with the research of many of the Dick Francis novels, not least Twice Shy, Shattered, and Under Orders. Since 2006, Felix has taken a more significant role in the writing, first with Dead Heat and then increasingly with the bestsellers, Silks and Even Money. Crossfire is the fourth novel of this father-and-son collaboration. Felix Francis lives in England.