Another week, another thriller from the pile. This week I picked up one of 4 books I seem to have acquired within box sets of thrillers written by John Francome, who is probably sick of the Dick Francis comparisons, but hey they both wrote crime novels set in the world of horse racing. Would knew there were so many plots to be had in that world? Stone Cold sees jockey Kelly Connor playing detective to find out who had her father killed and what it had to do with a shady bookie and a millionaire Qatari playboy prince.
brilliant...
Different to Dead Cert in many ways, Stone Cold is set in the nineties and sees Kelly travelling the world, to Japan and America at least, to race. I never knew that horse-racing was such an international thing - this and other incidental racing trivia makes for an interesting read. The central mystery as the deaths stack up is pretty compelling too, and almost lasts til the end. Kelly's investigations don't feel as forced as in some crime novels where the non-detective/police character suddenly turns super sleuth. She slowly begins to question the people in her life, while trying to grieve for her father and maintain/claw back her standing in the racing world.
but...
Sadly I thought the revelation about who the mastermind behind all the deaths was a tad too predictable and I lost interest towards the end.
briefly...
A pleasurable read set in a world that I have no interest in, yet Francome makes compelling - so full marks for that!
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