Date first published	1982
ISBN Number	0 330 26662 4
Page Count	252 p/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

Jockey and amateur photographer Philip Nore knows all too well how it feels to take a tumble from a horse. He also knows what it's like to feel the wrath of furious owners and trainers. You can't always be a winner.

George Millace hated winners. As a photographer he specialised in taking pictures that exposed the failings of riders. Now he's dead - and no one seems very sorry.

When Millace's home is broken into during his funeral and Nore finds himself helping clear up, he finds something unexpected. Millace had other pictures - ones people will go to desperate lengths to possess.

Now he must find out who wants them - and fast, because of George Millace's death was no accident then his killers are getting closer...

Review

This is another of Dick Francis's novels that give a snapshot of a past pre digital world. Again Dick has his central character in the racing world but it is the back story that is the where the main thrust of the story is centred, and so you get a brief introduction into the world of pre digital photography, where colour snaps went off for processing, and the really keen ones developed their own black and white shots. A fascinating world now largely lost.

The story also shows how the value of money has changed, as the blackmail fee is £5000 which from the text is a huge amount of money, but today hardly anything at all, when a million is regarded as pocket money.

The background of Philip Nore is perhaps filled in slightly more than usual, but this again forms an integral part of the story, and how he gets to meet the girl. Nore like many of Francis's best characters is a slight loaner, who during the course of the story finds a new self, and an end to an old life. There is also quite a mystery to unravel all centered around the world of photography, which shows great attention to detail - in some ways you don't need to know the ins and outs of the subject, but it adds to the whole feel of the novel, and at 250 pages it is still a tightly worded novel, with a good pace.

Another excellent novel, with all the right ingredients, a mystery (2 in fact) a likeable central character, slightly flawed, but still likeable, some good supporting characters and a mystery opponent who doesn't come out of the shadows until very late in the book, and who gets a very unusual come uppance - I'll say no more!.

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