Felix Francis returns to the horseracing world of Lambourn for the latest Sid Halley crime thriller
Bestselling crime writer Felix Francis, son of the late jockey and crime-writer writer Dick Francis, has a new book Dark Horse out on September 25.
Featuring our own Lambourn, it is the next novel in the Sid Halley series, perfect for fans of contemporary thrillers and of the Dick Francis novels.
Set between the race courses of England and Ireland, it focuses on a successful young female jockey, Imogen Duffy., and explores the themes of stalking and mental health within the racing world, the rivalry between jockeys and how some will stop at nothing to succeed. There is also the welcome return of former champion jockey and private detective, Sid Halley, who is urged by Imogen’s father to investigate a murder that she is being accused of.
As Jilly Cooper says: “Felix Francis' novels gallop along splendidly.”
You can catch Felix on a bookshop tour in Hungerford, Marlborough and Wallingford.
Imogen Duffy is a young Irish jockey, whose fledging career is given a huge boost when she wins a prestigious horse race at Cheltenham Steeplechasing Festival. But all is not well in her life. She has a violent and controlling boyfriend, also a jockey, and he becomes increasingly jealous of her success. As a result, she tries to break off their relationship, but he won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. He attacks her, and claims that he’d rather kill her than allow her to leave him.
Imogen flees her home in Ireland, coming to England to get away from him, and to continue her riding career at a racing stable in Lambourn, where she finds increasing success. But the abusive boyfriend follows her across the Irish Sea, stalks her, steals from her, attacks her again, and then tries to ruin both her career and her reputation.
Imogen’s desperate father turns to Sid Halley for help, and Sid reluctantly agrees to investigate, but then finds out that he is also being stalked and threatened. Can Sid find out what is going on, and before it is too late? This latest chapter of the Sid Halley story will have readers racing to the end as they are plunged into the dangerous and gripping world of horse racing.
Felix is a Sunday Times and New York Times international bestselling author and has sold almost a million copies of his books. He was born in Oxford and graduated from London University. His initial career led him into physics, where he was a successful teacher, and he went onto a second successful career as a bestselling author. His other accomplishments include being an outdoorsman, marksman and pilot. Felix Francis now lives in North Hampshire.
He will be meeting fans and signing books at Hungerford Bookshop on 9th October at 3.30pm – https://hungerfordbookshop.co.uk/product/dark-horse-by-felix-francis-signed-copy/
And at 6pm he will be at The White Horse bookshop in Marlborough.
He’s also visiting the Benson Library near Wallingford on October 15.
Dark Horse is published by Zaffre Books (Bonnier Books) at £20.
Felix undertook extensive research for Dark Horse, drawing on a diverse range of inspirations and sources to bring authenticity to this latest chapter of the Sid Halley story.
“I spent time at Reading Crown Court watching a trial to get the details for the trial in Dark Horse as realistic as I could. I also spoke with Miles Bennett, Barrister, to ensure all the information was as accurate as possible. I also read up on several murder trials, particularly around cases involving abusive relationships and used an amalgamation of several of these as inspiration for Imogen’s trial in Dark Horse.”
He says he enjoyed exploring the similarities and differences between English and Irish racing, particularly the extreme competitiveness between the two countries.
“I used this long-standing rivalry to add depth and background to the characters, with Imogen’s Irishness a key feature of her personality. Aside from this, I also decided to write from the perspective of a female jockey in this novel as I wanted the heart of the story to revolve around the relationship between two young jockeys and it seemed appropriate to use Imogen as the central character in that respect.”
Felix researched both Irish and English jump races, deciding to focus on Cheltenham Festivals and the Grand National meeting at Aintree in Dark Horse “as they are truly the cream of the crop in terms of jump racing in this country”.
He also added in Newton Abbot as he’s been there often and Windsor has also recently started jump racing after a long period of only flat racing so he felt he should give that a shout out too.
The more serious themes of domestic violence and stalking are prominent in Dark Horse.
“I decided to explore these aspects of personal relationships as, sadly, we hear too much about abusive relationships in the news and the courts. And whilst I did not base Imogen and Liam’s relationship in Dark Horse on any one particular example, I thought it was an important topic to explore.
“I wanted a relationship between two young jockeys, and it seemed appropriate to write it from the perspective of the female who was abused by the male. It also rings the changes. I used a female protagonist once before, in PULSE in 2017, and it seemed like a good time to do it again.
“Similarly mental health is an ongoing and major problem throughout the sporting world, with many ex-sportsmen in particular struggling once they are no longer ‘out in the middle’. In recent years, horseracing has done much to try and support ex-jockeys and ensure they still feel a part of the racing community, such as introducing the Jockey Recognition Badge, an initiative I applaud.”
Bonnier Books
