Date first published	Sept. 2000
ISBN Number	0 718 14453 8
Page Count	272 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

When jockey Martin Stukely dies following a fall in a steeplechase at Cheltenham races, he accidently embroils his friend Gerard Logan in a perilous search for a stolen video tape.

Gerard Logan, half artist, half artisan, is a glass-blower on the verge of widespread acclaim for the originality and ingenuity of his work. He has long been accustomed to the frightful dangers inherent in molten glass, not to mention in maintaining a glass making furnace at seldom less than 1800 degrees (F) day and night, but now he is suddenly faced with a series of unexpected and terrifying threats, first to his livelihood, then to his courage and, then finally to his life.

Believing the missing video tape to contain priceless information, and wrongly convinced that Logan knows when to find it, a vicious group of villains sets out to extract from him the information he does not have. Logan reckons that to survive he must himself find out the truth. The journey is a thorny one, and the final race to the tape throws more hurdles and hazards in his way than his dead jockey friend could ever have imagined.

Glass shatters. Logan doesn't - but it's a close run thing.

Review

This is one of those novels written by Francis, which is only just on the fringe of racing, yet brings to the fore some obscure art/business that quietly goes on in the world without anyone realising. Once again you are shown a world that is just as interesting as anything that could be made up. From the detail it is obvious that a fair bit of research has been under taken into the world of Glass Blowing.

Like many of his other novels, the hero, is thrust into danger by events, not of his choosing, and so it is with Gerard Logan, whose best friend is killed, and his legacy, leads him to a different, world.

I have to say, I like this book, and the priceless information stored on video tape (my how that has dated) turns out to be a possible medical cure, stolen by a mad scientist, who then steals the tape back, but doesn't tell his co-horts. Logan himself gets caught up with some slightly unsavoury characters, who however decide to be his protectors.

This book more than most is fairly local, with the local airport - Staverton only about 10 minutes drive away from my home, so another plus.

As with all the books the main characters are briefly sketched out, although Logan himself is given a bit more history than normal. His girlfriend gets the usual pen pic' and thats it. This story is definitely one of the better ones. The reason behind the attacks are fairly obscure, and it is only the final summing up that really explains what has been going on.

Reading the book, it is difficult to imagine how much technology has moved on. I'm guessing that at the time it was written video tape and associated technology was still fairly new, but of course has now been totally overtaken in the digital age. Now all data would go on a memory stick, with even CD/DVD technology made obsolete.

Apart from the obsolete technology this is a first rate story, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

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