The story is reminiscent of Joseph Finder’s thrillers, in which an ordinary man is suddenly plunged into an extraordinary situation, with the noose tightening on every page. Francis writes a stunning paranoid thriller here, with all evidence pointing against Russell, friends and acquaintances shunning him, and the media condemning him. Fans who may be disappointed at the loss of a solid racing connection will soon cheer for this dark horse.
The trial is suitably turbulent no matter who’s on the stand, and at times it seems there’ll never be a way to choose between the two men’s stories. But Francis, pulling out one of the hoariest clichés in the genre, provides a final twist that combines ambiguity and decisiveness ... Virtually nothing about horses, despite the Francis byline, but a banquet of juicy he said, he said moments.
Bestseller Francis’s plodding fifth solo addition to his father’s horse-racing series has only a tangential connection to the turf ... Suspension of disbelief is lessened by such details as Bill believing, inaccurately, that leading questions are impermissible on cross-examination. The twist ending will surprise few mystery fans. That Francis has done much better work in the past suggests that a return to form is possible.
