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  • Published: 29 September 2008
  • ISBN: 9780141889801
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384

Silks



"Julian Trent, you have been found guilty by this court of perpetrating a violent and unprovoked attack on an innocent family including a charge of attempted murder. You have shown little or no remorse for your actions and I consider you a danger to society."

When defence barrister Geoffrey Mason hears the judge's verdict, he quietly hopes that a long and arduous custodial sentence will be handed down to his arrogant young client. That Julian Trent only receives eight years seems all too lenient. Little does Mason expect that he'll be looking Trent in the eyes again much sooner than he'd ever imagined.

Setting aside his barrister's wig, Mason heads to Sandown to don his racing silks. An amateur jockey, his true passion is to be found in the saddle on a Thoroughbred, pounding the turf in the heat of a steeplechase. But when a fellow rider is brutally murdered - a pitchfork driven through his chest - Mason's racing life soon becomes all too close to his working life. The prime suspect is one of their brethren, champion jockey Steve Mitchell; the evidence is overwhelming.

Mason is reluctant to heed Mitchell's pleas for legal advice - but soon he finds himself at the centre of a sinister web of threat and intimidation. Mason is left fighting a battle of right and wrong, and more immediately, a battle of life and death... his own.

  • Published: 29 September 2008
  • ISBN: 9780141889801
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 384

About the authors

Felix Francis

Felix Francis is the younger of Dick Francis's two sons. Having spent seventeen years teaching A-level Physics, he took on the role of managing his father's affairs in 1991. Over the last forty years, Felix has assisted with the research of many of the Dick Francis novels, not least Twice Shy, which drew on Felix's experiences both as a Physics teacher and as a marksman, Shattered and Under Orders. With the publication of Dead Heat Felix took on a more significant role in the writing - Silks is the second novel of this father-and-son collaboration.

Dick Francis

Dick Francis has written forty-one novels, a volume of short stories (Field of 13), his autobiography (The Sport of Queens) and the biography of Lester Piggott. He is justly acclaimed as one of the greatest thriller writers in the world.

He has received many awards, amongst them the prestigious Crime Writers Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the genre, and the Mystery Writers of America have given him three Edgar Allen Poe awards for the best novel of the year, and in 1996 made him a Grand Master for a lifetime's achievement. He was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 2000.

Praise for Silks

A triumphant return to Francis family form

The Daily Mail

The master of suspense and intrigue

Country Life

A triumphant return to Francis family form

The Daily Mail

A tremendous read

Woman's Own

Still the master

Racing Post