Crisis
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4.5 • 20 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
***Thrillers that race from the very first page***
'Felix Francis' novels gallop along splendidly' Jilly Cooper
‘From winning post to top of the bestseller lists’ Sunday Times
Harrison Foster is a lawyer by training but works as a crisis manager for a London firm that specializes in such matters. Summoned to Newmarket after a fire in the Chadwick Stables slaughters six very valuable horses, including the short-priced favourite for the Derby, Harry (as he is known) finds there is far more to the ‘simple’ fire than initially meets the eye. For a start, human remains are found amongst the equestrian ones in the burnt-out shell. All the stable staff are accounted for, so who is the mystery victim?
Harry knows very little about horses, indeed he positively dislikes them, but he is thrust unwillingly into the world of Thoroughbred racing where the standard of care of the equine stars is far higher than that of the humans who attend to them.
The Chadwick family are a dysfunctional racing dynasty, with the emphasis being on the nasty. Resentment between the generations is rife and sibling rivalry bubbles away like volcanic magma beneath a thin crust of respectability.
Harry represents the Middle-Eastern owner of the Derby favourite and, as he delves deeper into the unanswered questions surrounding the horse’s demise, he ignites a fuse that blows the volcano sky-high, putting him in grave jeopardy. Can Harry solve the riddle before he is overcome by the toxic emissions from the eruption and is bumped off by the fallout?
Praise for Felix Francis's novels:
'The Francis flair is clear for all to see' Daily Mail
'From winning post to top of the bestseller list, time after time' Sunday Times
'The master of suspense and intrigue' Country Life
'A tremendous read' Woman's Own
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A colorless lead and a tacked-on romantic subplot mar Francis's unmemorable eighth novel set in the English horse racing world chronicled by his father (after 2017's Pulse). Small-town lawyer Harry Foster gets a new lease on life when he lands a position with Simpson White Consultancy, a crisis management firm. Despite Foster's complete ignorance about horses, he's dispatched to Newmarket to represent the interests of Sheikh Ahmed Karim, a charismatic Arab king who has "made lasting peace" in the Middle East. The sheikh's prize horse, Prince of Troy, who was expected to easily win the Derby, died in a fire that also killed six other colts. Foster is charged with ascertaining whether the blaze was accidental or arson, a task that becomes trickier when the body of an unidentified woman, who was dead before the fire started, is found in the stables where the animals were housed. The lawyer's efforts aren't appreciated by either the police or members of the dysfunctional Chadwick family, who were responsible for training and caring for Prince of Troy. The clich d denouement lacks the younger Francis's usual inventiveness. Fans will hope for a return to form next time.)
