Iced

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The book is engaging and readable with an action driven plot told in parallel first person PoV through flashbacks and the current day, timelines which converge in St. And the back and forth of each chapter, from the past to the present day was not my favorite, but it mostly worked. And in doing so, I realised that the descriptions of life in the jockey world would have been far more captivating if written by Dick Francis because he would have included threats, suspicion and an altogether more exciting story weaving around Miles Pusset's depressingly gloomy life. Maybe it was the off-putting writing style which was more concerned about diligently describing ever grandstand or piece of turf that was being raced on.

You cannot help comparing Felix Francis' work to that of his father, especially when his narrative features racing and even at one point mentions 'Dick Francis'. He was in St Moritz the same weekend as White Turf - that's high-class horseracing on the frozen lake and against his better judgement he gets talked into helping with the saddling of the horses. Due out 12th July 2022 from Crooked Lane Books, it's 326 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Eventually, he has a panic attack and is found by two policemen in the middle of a street late one night. Miles is the son of a famous jockey and had always wanted to follow in his famous father's footsteps.Finding himself in St Moritz during the same weekend as White Turf, when high-class horseracing takes place on the frozen lake, Miles gets talked into helping out with the horses. While I am happy to see the Sid Halley story continued, I don't think Felix should be the one to do it!

I, sadly, am not… I confess I speed read the pages crammed full of descriptions of individual British courses, and of the mechanics of individual races in which Miles rode. While there is no pro- or epilogue statement about the need to seek professional help and addiction recovery organizations, the wisdom of those courses of action is apparent in the tale. He could have had Miles perform death or gravity defying maneuvers anywhere but if the author could get a paid vacation to one of the most exclusive and picaresque places, he might as well take advantage of the situation. Having left racing and now at St Moritz he is railroaded into helping out at the White turf weekend horse racing on ice, but pretty soon he discovers something suspicious, a horse running with extra weight and his old employer attacked.

He is taken in by trainer Jerry Dickinson and becomes a fairly successful jockey until he develops a problem. The pace was a little slower, and I didn’t feel there was the element of suspense that I felt in the previous book. At Cresta, the luging event, he runs into his old trainer Jerry who asks for help dressing two horses for the ice racing the next day. How he managed to get his weight down if too heavy, in steam rooms for too long and depriving himself of eating, to be nearly unable to walk to be seated on the horse. He used the idea of writing a book so he could peruse all of the horse races while getting ginned up and gambling on the ponies.

This book doesn't have the "on your chair" excitement, but it is well written and keeps you wanting to continue reading. Finally, please keep in mind that I try to fight “star-flation” a little bit, so I don’t give many five-star reviews and four-stars from me is a solid “read this book” recommendation.

And that continued right to the end, after which I shut down my Kindle and said to myself, "Self, that was very well written and a darned good story. In St Moritz he is pressured by a chance encounter with his old trainer into helping out with two horses entered in the annual White Turf horse racing festival held on the frozen snow-covered lake – even though he swore he would never again go near a meet. Overall this was an interesting read, i would have liked a little more suspense or drama thrown in, but this is still an entertaining read. Now he gets his adrenalin rush from riding down the Cresta Run, a three-quarter-mile Swiss ice chute, head first, reaching speeds of up to eighty miles per hour. It is the first book by Felix Francis that I have read, and I will definitely be looking out for more of his books in the future.

It doesn't help that, as a jockey, he faces a lot of other stresses ranging from the obsessive need to lose weight to remain eligible to race and the pressure put on him to win races and the public's written and spoken pressure when he doesn't win.

So IMHO, it's another one well done - maybe more so because it isn't just another formulaic entry into a series. Later when Miles is doing a practise ride on the Cresta run someone has put something on the track, at the speed he is going Miles has no chance of stopping and ends up hitting the obstruction at high speed. The story bowls along nicely and Miles eventually, of course, solves the mystery and justice is dispensed. Having read the previous novel Guilty not Guilty by Felix Francis I was excited to get the opportunity to read this one. He finds that the latest runner did not win, and when he is pulling the equipment and saddle off him finds the breast girth filled with lead weights.