Richard Stanley Francis was a British crime writer. His novels centre on horse racing in England. After wartime service in the RAF, Francis became a full-time jump-jockey, winning over 350 races and becoming champion jockey of the British National Hunt. Francis wrote more than 40 international best-sellers. In his twenty-fifth novel, Francis returns to horseracing to provide a protagonist and a plot. For variety’s sake, more recent efforts have forsaken the turf for other subjects: wine, international kidnapping, computer theft, and accounting. As always, the hero comes from an orphaned or rejecting family. He answers a cry of need or else finds himself plunged mysteriously into a treacherous maelstrom. He enjoys two requisite amorous beddings and suffers serious physical pain before his ultimate triumph. Christmas Fielding, a British champion steeplechase rider, responds to an appeal from his twin sister Holly. For unknown reasons, someone is planting scurrilous gossip about her husband, who owns a training stable. Anxious owners threaten to withdraw their horses, and Kit’s inquiries lead him into the storm centre of a power play between a devious newspaper publisher and an unprincipled financier, who happens also to be Holly’s father-in-law. The investigation is seasoned by royalty, sex, and violence. Listen online to free English audiobook "Break In” on our website to experience Dick Francis's novel.
