Date first published	1984
ISBN Number	0 330 29069 X
Page Count	269 p/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

At an annual party to celebrate the success of the racing season everything seemed to be running well to form. Including the need for more champagne. Until a runaway horsebox ploughed into the marquee..

Witness to the terrible death and destruction, wine merchant tony Beach knows it is just one of those tragic accidents. But when his expert advice is called into play over sub-standard alcohol in a local night club, connections start to click.

And another person dies ... horribly.

Review

Every now and again Francis turns out an absolute gem of a story, and this is one them.

Tony Beach is loosely connected to the horse racing world, his interest being wine and whiskey. A man hit by adversity, who refinds himself during the course of an adventure that he does not initiate, and who is not the centre of the story, yet from his vantage point on the fringe of the story we see a story of desparation and greed unfurl.

The story only really kicks off when one of the injured in the marquee accident mumbles about fake whiskey to a policeman on his way to hospital, and this attracts the attention of a senior officer already involved in the investigation of fake drink. So our unlily hero is gradually dragged into the investigation.

The story shows the attention to detail expected, and we learn quite a bit about the role of a small independant off licence and how it works. It has all probably been destroyed now by the big supermarkets. It does however show a small snapshot into the workings of Britain in the early 80's.

Unlike many of his novels the hero is not the target, and only becomes one in an attempt by the mastermind to recover the evidence of what has been going on at the nightclub. Things become more interesting with the appearance of a private investigator, looking for some stolen whiskey, which is inextricably linked to fake wine which is also being palmed off on the unwary.

This is a really cracking story, full of subtle humour to offset the crazed mind of the man driven to steal and cheat by changes in the way wine is shipped, and who has a novel way of killing those who know too much, with plaster of paris, in itself a novel way of killing off your enemies.

If there is a weakness to the story, it is the cause of the accident, with a samll boy accidentlly releasing the handbrake of the horsebox, which I think unlikely, but as you can see it is a minor weakness in an otherwise excellent story. The story just goes to show how coincidence and random events can lead to devastating consequences.

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