Date first published	19/09/2019
ISBN Number	978-1 4711 7316 -0
Page Count	407 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

It is said that everyone over a certain age can remember what they were doing when they heard that President Kennedy had been assassinated or that Princess Diana had been killed in a Paris car crash, but I, for one, could recall all too clearly where I was standing when a policeman told me that my wife had been murdered.

Bill Russell is acting as a volunteer steward at Warwick races when he confronts his worst nightmare - the violent death of his much-loved wife. But worse is to come when he is accused of killing her and hounded mercilessly by the media. His life begins to unravel completely as he loses his job and hsi home. Even his best friends turn against him, believing him guilty of the heinous crime in spite of the lack of compelling evidence.

Bill sets out to clear his name but finds that proving one's innocence is not easy - one has to find the true culprit, and Bill believes he knows wo it is. But can he prove it before he becomes another victim of the murderer?

Review

This is pure classic Francis, with the main story set just outside of the racing world. You have the hero, implicated in his wife's murder, who has to fight to the end to clear his name. His main foe being the police who seem happy to accept him as guilty based on the flimsey evidence of a large insurance policy.

The leading culprit, who is a thoroughly nasty piece of work (as he should be) trying his best to sink bill, by whatever means he can, whether physically or by lying to all in sundry.

In the background is a sub-story, which largely remains just that, a minor detail, but one that has huge ramifications later on. It is the second story with mental illness in the background.

As all good Francis novels should we end up with a final battle that sees the hero freed and the culprit locked away. However the final chapter, then totally blows the whole finale apart, in one of the best and neatest twists at the end. I'm not going to say more than that because the beauty of this story is the final twist.

One of his best books.

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