Date first published	1994
ISBN Number	BCA
Page Count	282 h/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

Valentine, a blind, confused and dying old man, seeking his peace with God, makes his last confession to a visiting friend Thomas Lyon, mistaking him for priest. This puts Thomas in a moral dilemma. Wild horses wouldn't drag from a priest the secrets of the confessional - but then Thomas is not a priest.

Thomas is engaged in directing a film concerned with racing when he unexpectedly finds himself facing the old wild horses dilemma. Should he tell what he knows from the confession - or not. He discovers that the solution to his quandary could mean the difference between life and death. His life. His death. Either way, he is in trouble. Accustomed as he is to making difficult choices and decisions, he needs to call on extreme courage and cunning to sort through the chaos and keep himself alive.

Review

I think the writer must have been having an off day when he wrote the above blurb! How many times do you need to get the title embedded into the marketing literature?

This is another of the novels set loosely around the racing industry, with the industry just the back cloth to the proceedings. Something that the author is very good at, and why I keep coming back to his novels.

The story follows the usual Francis plot, of our hero becoming involved in events by accident, this time through knowing one of the people involved in the original mystery which goes a long way back in time. The usual mix of violence is blended in to make a good solid novel, along with the background on how a film is made to keep you on your toes. For Thomas is fighting two foes, his paymasters, and the adversary who believes that he holds key knowledge that could bring trouble.

Yet it's one of those strange situations, that if the adversary had waited to see what happened he may have had to do nothing, but the very fact of his intervention causes the hero to act to defend himself.

Perhaps it's the filming of a book loosely based on the events of 30 years ago that really pushes the killer into action.

There is also the interlude, where the hero goes off to meet a 'knife expert', and in doing so learns something of the killers mentality, which ultimately saves the heros life.

A wapping red herring is thrown into the mix part way through the book, just to get you thinking, but in fact it doesn't need it, as the outcome of the puzzle is never that clear (or it wasn't to me), and the protagonist remains firmly in the background. This is partly because the main event which the story centres around is in the past, and none of the potential killers is actually around, or directly connected to the hero. However the death of Valentine does awaken an old fear.

The final showdown, is something of an anti climax, with a brief fight between hero and killer, with neither being killed. It is not the normal sort of grand fight but deadly scuffle, which anyone could get involved in.

This a good solid Francis novel, not a favourite, but a good read nether the less.

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