Crossfire

by Dick Francis, Felix Francis

Overview

Shell-shocked after losing a foot during his tour in Afghanistan, Captain Tom Forsyth returns to his estranged mother's house. His mother has always put horses first and family last. But now she's being blackmailed for a hefty sum every week and being forced to make her horses lose. Using the skills he honed in the military, Tom sets out to find and defeat a hidden enemy before his mother's reputation is ruined, and he ends up back in the crossfire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425242629
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/02/2011
Series:	A Dick Francis Novel
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	4.20(w) x 7.40(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Dick Francis was born in South Wales in 1920. He was a young rider of distinction winning awards and trophies at horse shows throughout the United Kingdom. At the outbreak of World War II he joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot, flying fighter and bomber aircraft including the Spitfire and Lancaster.

He became one of the most successful postwar steeplechase jockeys, winning more than 350 races and riding for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. After his retirement from the saddle in 1957, he published an autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write more than forty acclaimed books.

A three-time Edgar Award winner, he also received the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association’s Cartier Diamond Dagger, was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, and was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2000. He died in February 2010, at age eighty-nine, and remains among the greatest thriller writers of all time.

Felix Francis, a graduate of London University, spent seventeen years teaching A-level physics before taking on an active role in his father’s career. He has assisted with the research of many of the Dick Francis novels, including Shattered, Under Orders, and Twice Shy, which drew on Felix’s experiences as a physics teacher and as an international marksman. He is coauthor with his father of the New York Times bestsellers Dead Heat, Silks, and Even Money. He lives in England.

Hometown:

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, British West Indies

Date of Birth:

October 31, 1920

Date of Death:

February 14, 2010

Place of Birth:

Tenby, Pembrokeshire, southwest Wales

Place of Death:

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, British West Indies

Education:

Dropped out of Maidenhead County School at age 15.

Editorial Reviews

In the enjoyable fourth and final collaboration between Francis (1920-2010) and son Felix (after Even Money), the army career of Capt. Thomas Forsyth abruptly ends when an IED in Afghanistan blows off one of his feet, leaving him with a prosthetic replacement (like another Francis lead, Sid Halley). Upon discharge from National Health Service care, Forsyth makes his way home to Lambourn, where he gets a less-than-warm welcome from his mother, Josephine Kauri, a horse trainer. After learning that her stable has had a series of mishaps, Forsyth discovers that Kauri has been sabotaging her own animals in response to a blackmailer's threats to reveal her tax evasion to the authorities. With nothing else to occupy him, he turns detective to identify the extortionist. Though the plot details won't linger as long as those in Dick Francis's best work, like Whip Hand, this is still a suspenseful read. Francis aficionados will hope that Felix chooses to carry on the family tradition on his own. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Francis, a former steeplechase jockey and author of more than 40 best sellers before his death in February 2010, teamed up with his son Felix to coauthor three mysteries: Dead Heat, Silks, and Even Money. Their fourth and final collaboration does not disappoint. After losing a foot from an IED (improvised explosive device) in Afghanistan, Capt. Tom Forsyth is told he will no longer be able to serve in active combat. When he leaves the rehab hospital, he realizes he has nowhere to go except home to his race horse trainer Mom and stepfather, a home he happily left behind when he turned 17. Now Tom finds that his mother has been persuaded to spend all of her savings on a hedge fund that went south; in addition, she is being blackmailed for a large sum each month. Apprehending the blackmailers gives Forsyth a new reason to live.Verdict Tom's a typical brave, witty, and charming Francis protagonist. Here's hoping Felix will continue the family literary tradition. Highly recommended.—Patsy Gray, Huntsville, AL

Library Journal

Martin Jarvis and Dick Francis have been a winning combination for some time, and this latest and last (Francis died recently) is no exception. Back from Afghanistan minus a foot, Tom Forsyth discovers that his mother, a prominent racehorse trainer, is being blackmailed. His investigation and a budding romance give him a new purpose in life. Jarvis’s vocal characterizations are beyond wonderful, especially the mother, a haughty harridan who mellows, and the stiff-upper-lip industrialist, who aids Tom. There’s also a stableful of other friends and foes. The characters’ various British accents enliven a gripping story. One can hear Tom’s developing maturity and self-confidence as he calls on his military training to outwit the blackmailers. Let’s hope Francis’s son, Felix, will carry on the family tradition. J.B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2010 - AudioFile

The late Dick Francis's 44th, and last, canter around the track echoes several of his greatest hits.

Capt. Tom Forsyth has returned from service in Afghanistan without his right foot. Since the Army's been his only home for half a lifetime, he has nowhere to retreat but the home of his thrice-married mother, the doyenne of British racehorse trainers. Tom's rocky reunion with Josephine (née Jane) Kauri is rendered even more difficult by his suspicion that her charges' recent string of high-profile losses is more than bad luck, and his discovery that she's being blackmailed by someone who's bleeding her white even as he's forcing her to sabotage her horses, landing her in even deeper legal troubles than the ones that first made her vulnerable to extortion. With no hope of calling on the police, Tom relies on his knowledge of military tactics to force the blackmailer to show his hand. Not surprisingly, his aggressive moves against the unknown enemy quickly get him noticed and neutralized. Even after he escapes his kidnapper, he'll have his hands full picking him from a field of likely-looking prospects.

Tom's missing leg echoes ex-jockey Sid Halley's damaged hand (Under Orders, 2006, etc.), and his captivity recalls Rob Finn's ordeal in Nerve (1964). Do these signs of the Francis formula—loner hero, dysfunctional family, oversexed female, physical torture and, of course, horseracing—mean that his son Felix, who's partnered with him in his last four outings, will carry on the beloved franchise alone?

Kirkus Reviews