Dead Lucky

February 15, 2022
A team of horse dopers runs afoul of Harry Radcliffe. Big mistake. How lucky is Harry? Lucky enough to be England's champion jump jockey. Lucky enough to have his estranged wife, Annabel, still in love with him despite her devotion to her lover, Sir Jeffrey. Lucky enough to avoid serious injury when horsebox driver Keith Whellan, who's already saved his life once, gets shot as they're driving off together from the engagement party of Keith's sister, Holly. Lucky enough that the villains intending to drug Baccus, his mount at Newbury Racecourse, mistakenly drug rival horse Bayard Boy instead, casting grave suspicion on trainer Albertine "Tal" Hunter. Despite Harry's determination to stop investigating cases of criminal malfeasance, he feels obligated to dig up evidence that would prove Tal's innocence, especially given the fact that suspicious character Lenny Backhouse has recently been pulled dead from the Smite. Harry's luck continues when famous screen actress Dame Isabella Pullbright asks him to ride her mounts and when Lady Willamina Branshawe, Bayard Boy's owner, invites him and a companion to a party, though he's sorely pressed to figure out who the companion should be. Even the spill he takes when a horse falls from a jump leaves him with no concussion or other serious injuries that would cause the authorities to pull his card. When his luck finally does run out and he suffers the obligatory physical attack, it's in an unlikely venue that guarantees prompt medical attention. Excellent racing and track sequences, a so-so mystery, and some truly forgettable bad guys.

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March 1, 2022
Champion jockey Harry Radcliffe has a knack for winning races, but he's also a talented amateur sleuth with a high success rate at solving tricky cases. In Harry's latest outing, he and his friend Keith are driving home from a race when a bullet pierces the windshield of their vehicle and hits Keith, who ends up in intensive care. Shocked to the core, Harry worries that the bullet might have been meant for him and resolves to find out what's going on. Then, in a seemingly unrelated incident, a horse from the stable owned by Harry's good friend Tal is found to have drugs in its system--the kiss of death for a stable's reputation. Tal begs Harry to investigate, and because he's a loyal friend, Harry agrees. Then he learns that a member of Keith's family has been threatened by a pair of thugs. It doesn't take long for Harry to link his two cases and to put himself even more in harm's way. An entertaining read for fans of horse racing and lovers of all things equine.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 28, 2022
British author Wilson’s plodding fifth mystery featuring champion jump jockey Harry Ratcliffe (after 2019’s Dead Heat) opens with a literal bang. The noise wakes up Harry, who’s been dozing in the horsebox that his friend Keith Whellan has been driving, to see Keith has been shot and is bleeding profusely. Quick-witted Harry takes control of the vehicle, gives Keith medical aid, and calls for an ambulance. Since Harry has a reputation for solving murder cases, the question on everyone’s lips is: was the bullet meant for Keith, who survives the shooting, or Harry? Despite emphatically stating that he won’t investigate, Harry gets on the case. His first lead comes from Ginnie Cutler, part of the cleaning staff for racing venues in the Midlands. Ginnie overheard a suspicious conversation between two thuggish men who, when they discovered her, threatened to harm her grandchild if she told anyone what she had heard. She, of course, tells Harry, who’s soon chasing a small but deadly pack of vicious criminals. Authentic racetrack scenes make up only in part for characters who tend to merge (the villains are all one-dimensional nutcases) and a routine plot. Dick Francis this is not.