Crossfire - Hardcover

Francis, Dick; Francis, Felix

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0718156633 ISBN 13: 9780718156633

Publisher: Michael Joseph, 2010

Synopsis

Crossfire is the new thriller from father son team Dick Francis and Felix Francis.

Captain Thomas Forsyth's tour of Afghanistan is cut brutally short when he is badly wounded by a roadside bomb.

Returning home, to his mother - a racehorse trainer and the 'First Lady' of racing - Tom discovers the 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?

From Felix Francis and Dick Francis, the bestselling co-authors of Dead Heat and Even Money comes Crossfire, the latest Dick Francis novel. Packed with all the hair-raising suspense and excitement readers know and love from Dick Francis, Crossfire is the most dazzling yet.

Praise for the Dick Francis novels:
'The Francis flair is clear for all to see' Daily Mail
'Spare, efficient and unflashy . . . inexorably draws you in' Daily Telegraph
'The master of suspense and intrigue' Country Life
'Still the master' Racing Post

Dick Francis was one of the most successful post-war National Hunt jockeys. On his retirement from the saddle, he published his autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write forty-three bestselling novels, a volume of short stories and the biography of Lester Piggott.

Dick Francis died in February, 2010, at the age of 89, but he remains one of the greatest thriller writers of all time.

Felix Francis is the younger of Dick's two sons. 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.

About this title

Review:

Who – in the last decade or so -- wrote the novels of Dick Francis? For quite some time there was a question regarding the work of the late thriller master. His sharp and involving novels, strongly evocative of the racing milieus within which their tales of corruption and murder were set, have long been highly thought of, and much read – but who was their real author? Rumours were rife – mainly that their nominal author was less involved in them of late than the moniker on the jacket indicated. But now we know: for some time, the Dick Francis thrillers had been the product of joint authorship. Francis's wife – and, latterly, his son Felix -- had notable involvement in the books. And just before Dick’s death, the two men made no secret of the joint authorship; now we have the final book to bear that portmanteau credit, Crossfire -- but is it a suitably entertaining signing-off?

Captain Thomas Forsyth finds himself invalided out of Afghanistan with a serious injury, the result of a roadside bomb. He is having difficulty in adjusting to life without the prospect of rejoining his regiment. Home in Lambourn (where his mother, an important trainer, is a mover and shaker in the world of racing),Tom discovers that the world of horse training can have its own considerable risks – and he’s soon being testing by the rigours of a new battlefield.

So -- the sixty-four thousand dollar question -- is Crossfire a suitable farewell effort for Francis père et fils? Its predecessor, Silks, was received with mixed opinions, but (largely speaking), Francis aficionados will feel they’ve got their money’s worth here with some solid storytelling, even if reading the final novel bearing the name Dick Francis (albeit with his son’s assistance) will be a bittersweet experience. But the family name (and the Francis franchise) will, no doubt, live on... --Barry Forshaw

Review:

'The Francis flair is clear for all to see.' (The Daily Mail)

'The master of suspense and intrigue.' (Praise for the author) (Country Life)

About this edition

• Publisher: Michael Joseph
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0718156633
• ISBN 13: 9780718156633
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336