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Dead Heat
14 November, 2007
Horse & Hound reviews Dick Francis's latest thriller, Dead Heat
When the racing author's wife, Mary, died in 2000, as well as empathising with his loss, we Francis fans also mourned what we thought was the end of a great literary partnership. But the Dick-otomy continues; Dick Francis now corroborates with his son, Felix.
And between them they've cooked up a corker. Dead Heat begins with two explosive incidents; one literally, the other involving food poisoning by (of all things) kidney beans. The most shocking, however, is a bomb planted in a private box at Newmarket. Skip the descriptions of the aftermath if you've had a heavy lunch.
The protagonist, Max Moreton, is a chef of a successful restaurant called The Hay Net, and also does outside catering. He has a love interest called Caroline Aston, a viola player — he's another beau to her string.
Throw into the pot, after the poisoning and the bomb, a car crash and a fire, and you have Dick Francis cooking on gas. The plot, for all it stretches your credibility — and doesn't he always? — is clever, if not ingenious, and keeps the reader guessing.
Dick Francis is no has-bean.
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