Date first published	1986
ISBN Number	0 330 30138 1
Page Count	240 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

Kit Fielding's patron, Princess Casilia, is in trouble. Her invalid husband, Roland de Brescou, is being threatened by a business partner. To enforce the threat, all the Princess's best runners are wantonly being destroyed - shot by a bolt.

The only person she can turn to is Kit, but he has problems of his own. his fiancee Danielle appears to have changed her mind. His age-old feud with Maynard Allardeck has once again intensified into a violent outburst. Wherever he goes, the champion jockey seems to attract bloodshed...

Review

So a second outing for Kit Fielding, and quite a bit different from the previous one, or so you think until the end. Much of the story focuses on the battle for Roland de Brescou's business, and the death of the Princesses horses. Henri Nanterre is pointedly the bad guy, and is intent on getting his way. He is also an opportunist, jumping on the death of the Princesses horse as a lever. As always the villain is painted as very bad and Nanterre comes across as very bad, not averse to a bit of threats of violence, kidnapping and car bombing. However it turns out he may not be the only one with a grudge.

Kit in his pig headed way is not going to let a thug hurt the Princess or the Count, and this time has an ally who may take away his fiancee, who has seemed distracted, and not so keen on marriage.

As with most Francis books we only get a brief outline of the characters, and you are left to fill in the gaps. Normally I would regard this as a weakness, but you soon don't notice as you get sucked into the plot. As most of the characters are one offs it doesn't really matter that you don't get a detailed description. Perhaps that's why his novels works so well, there is not an inch of fat in the books, it's all plot and action.

The battle is fought and won, only for Kit to realise that he has been fighting two enemies and not the one that he thought. SO late in the book a second battle takes place, and he can only be a bystander as fate plays its cards.

Another excellent novel, and with a slightly different direction is not simply a retread of the previous book, which would have been the easy way out. We learn little more of the main characters, but you immediately feel at home with them and hope of the happy ending.

Just as a matter of interest the latest cover of the novel shows a very peculiar image rather than the captive bolt of the original cover.

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