Silks

July 28, 2008
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.

There may be no better combination on audio than Dick Francis and Martin Jarvis. Francis, now writing with his son Felix, turns out thrillers set in British racing circles. Geoffrey Mason is a lawyer by trade and an amateur jockey by passion. Hired to defend a champion jockey arrested for murdering another jockey with a pitchfork, Mason finds himself evading vengeful former clients, soaring over steeplechase jumps, and falling in love with a veterinarian. As usual, the smooth and supremely versatile Jarvis inhabits a plethora of diverse characters, ranging from stuffed-shirt lawyers and cranky parents to grinning psychopathic thugs. His timing is also impeccable. Expect to be addicted and listening through the night. A.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine