Silks Dick Francis; Felix Francis | ISBN : 0-399-15533-3

Silks

Author: Dick Francis and Felix Francis

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

Publication Date: 26 August, 2008

ISBN: 9780399155338

Pages: 352

Subjects: Mystery, Legal

Available as: Trade Cloth, 978-0-399-15533-8 Trade Paper, 978-1-59413-349-7 Trade Paper, 978-0-425-22897-5 E-Book - netLibrary, 978-1-4159-5963-3

Description:

“Julian Trent, you have been found guilty by this court of perpetrating a violent and unprovoked attack on an innocent family including a charge of attempted murder. You have shown little or no remorse for your actions and I consider you a danger to society.”

When defense lawyer Geoffrey Mason hears the judge’s ruling at London’s Old Bailey, he quietly hopes that a substantial sentence will be handed down to his arrogant young client. That Julian Trent only receives eight years seems all too lenient. Little does Mason realize that he’ll be looking Trent in the eyes again much sooner than that.

Setting aside his barrister’s gown and wig, Mason heads to Sandown racetrack to don his colorful racing silks. As an amateur jockey, he fulfills his true passion by pounding the turf in the heat of a steeplechase. Yet when a fellow rider is brutally murdered—a pitchfork driven through his chest—Mason’s racing hobby soon becomes too close to his work. The prime suspect is one of their brethren, champion jockey Steve Mitchell, and the evidence against him seems overwhelming.

Mason is reluctant to heed Mitchell’s plea for legal help—but he soon finds himself at the center of a sinister web of violence, threats and intimidation. Mason is left fighting a battle of right and wrong, and more immediately, a battle of life and death&his own.

PW Publishers Weekly

Review Source: Publishers Weekly

Review Date: 0--

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. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.