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Silks

Name: Silks
Author: Dick Francis
ISBN: 9780425228975

by Dick Francis, Felix Francis

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Overview

From Dick Francis and his son, Felix, comes Geoffrey Mason-a defense barrister whose true passion is riding his Thoroughbred. Mason's two lives collide when a fellow jockey is accused of murdering a colleague with a pitchfork. Mason prefers not to get involved. But soon he is torn between doing what's right-and what will keep him alive.

Synopsis

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

The collaboration between Dick Francis and his son, Felix, has produced another sure-footed winner in Silks. Both the central theme and the story elements of this racetrack thriller are familiar…but this hero's useful perspective brings fresh excitement to a grand old sport.

About the Author, Dick Francis

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.

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Editorials

Marilyn Stasio

Publishers Weekly

After collaborating on Dead Heat(2007), bestseller Francis and his son, Felix, deliver another gripping thriller with a thoroughbred racing backdrop. Soon after London barrister Geoffrey Mason, an amateur jockey by avocation, starts receiving a series of threatening messages from a former client, Julian Trent, whose conviction for assault was overturned on appeal, Mason reluctantly accepts the defense of a jockey, Steve Mitchell, accused of the pitch-fork murder of fellow rider Scot Barlow at a steeplechase event. Mitchell and Barlow had fallen out over Barlow's sister, a vet and Mitchell's former girlfriend, who took her own life just a short while before. When unknown parties order Mason to lose the case, he must balance his professional ethics and his sense of self-preservation. The solid writing and engaging lead will carry readers along at a brisk pace, though some may find the dramatic courtroom revelation of the murderer overly theatrical. (Sept.)

Library Journal

Threetime Edgar® Awardwinning author Dick Francis's first collaboration with his son, Felix, was the 2007 mystery Dead Heat, which debuted at No. 3 on the New York Times best sellers list. This is his second such partnership, also set in Francis's triedandtrue world of British horseracing. Actor/narrator Martin Jarvis voices all the characters distinctly and believably; with the undercurrent of wry humor and masterful pacing, his narration nicely complements the characterdriven writing. A wonderfully successful package for all popular fiction collections. [Also available from Books on Tape on CD (ISBN 9781415959626 - 9781415959633)
—Don Wismer

Kirkus Reviews

What new angles on horse racing are left for veteran Francis (Dead Heat, 2007, etc.) to explore? His latest hero is a barrister who's also a passionate amateur steeplechase jockey. It's no wonder that Geoffrey Mason's fellow jockeys call him Perry, for he makes his living in the courtroom, not on the track. By any measure his least satisfying case is his unsuccessful defense of Julian Trent, accused of savaging a family with a baseball bat. Even though Trent is clearly guilty, his conviction is reversed on appeal, and as soon as he's released he sets about making his former counsel's life miserable-threatening him, trashing his home, attacking him physically. Even worse, a fortuitous telephone caller demands that the very junior Mason assume the defense of Steve Mitchell, the champion jockey accused of killing his longtime rival Scot Barlow-and that he lose the case, which looks easy enough to do in light of the evidence. To underline Mason's vulnerability, his shadowy enemy sends him photographs of his aging father and his new romantic interest, whom he clearly intends to harm if Mason doesn't play along. And it may be harder than Mason thought to cooperate, since it gradually becomes clear that Mitchell may not be guilty after all. Despite Mason's avocation, the outsider's view of racing takes a back seat to the courtroom sequences. Partnering for the second time with his son, Francis produces a whodunit more accomplished than ever but less distinctive than the work that put him on the map. Book-of-the-Month Club and Mystery Guild main selection