9780399155918
Even Money
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Publication Date: 25 August, 2009
ISBN: 9780399155918
Pages: 368
Subjects: Mystery, Suspense, Thrillers, Crime
Available as: Trade Cloth, 978-0-399-15591-8 Trade Cloth, 978-1-4104-1751-0 Trade Paper, 978-0-425-23590-4 Trade Paper, 978-1-59413-406-7
Description:
The New York Times-bestselling authors return with a heart-stopping new novel.

O n the first day of Royal Ascot, the world's most famous horse race, the crowd rejoices in a string of winning favorites. Ned Talbot has worked all his life as a bookmaker- taking over the family business from his grandfather- so he knows not to expect any sympathy from the punters as they count their winnings, and he his losses. He's seen the ups and downs before-but, as the big gambling conglomerates muscle in on small concerns like his, Ned wonders if it's worth it any more.

When a gray-haired man steps forward from the crowd claiming to be his father, Ned's life is thrown into far deeper turmoil. He'd been told since he was a baby that his parents had died in a car crash.

Barely an hour later, his newly found father is stabbed by an unknown assailant in the Ascot parking lot. Blood oozing from his abdomen, his father warns Ned to "be very careful." But of whom? Of what? Ned finds himself in a race to solve his father's riddle-a race where coming in second could cost him more than even money-it could cost him his life. . . .
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PW Publishers Weekly
Review Source: Publishers Weekly
Review Date: 2009-06-29
Copyright: (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
The third collaboration between bestseller Francis and son Felix (after Silks), a taut crime thriller, features an especially sympathetic hero. Bookmaker Ed Talbot is struggling with his wife's mental illness, even as technology threatens to give the big bookmaking outfits an insurmountable advantage over his small family business. Soon after a man shows up at Ascot and identifies himself as Ed's father, Peter, whom Ed believed long dead, a thug demanding money stabs Peter to death. Ed is in for even more shocks when he learns his father was the prime suspect in his mother's murder-and that Peter's killing, rather than a random act of violence, may be linked to a mysterious electronic device used in some horse-racing fraud. Ed must juggle his amateur investigations into past and present crimes with his demanding family responsibilities. Though some readers may find the ending overly pat, the authors make bookmaking intelligible while easily integrating it into the plot. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
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