Вторая рука

The New York Times-bestselling authors return with a heart-stopping new novel.

O n the first day of Royal Ascot, the world's most famous horse race, the crowd rejoices in a string of winning favorites. Ned Talbot has worked all his life as a bookmaker – taking over the family business from his grandfather – so he knows not to expect any sympathy from the punters as they count their winnings, and he his losses. He's seen the ups and downs before – but, as the big gambling conglomerates muscle in on small concerns like his, Ned wonders if it's worth it any more.

When a gray-haired man steps forward from the crowd claiming to be his father, Ned's life is thrown into far deeper turmoil. He'd been told since he was a baby that his parents had died in a car crash.

Barely an hour later, his newly found father is stabbed by an unknown assailant in the Ascot parking lot. Blood oozing from his abdomen, his father warns Ned to 'be very careful.' But of whom? Of what? Ned finds himself in a race to solve his father's riddle – a race where coming in second could cost him more than even money – it could cost him his life…

The Grand Master returns in prize-winning form

Geoffrey Mason did it for the money. It is obvious that his client Julian Trent is guilty, and it's about time rich boy Trent is taught a lesson for his violent ways. The only thing still bothering Geoff is that he is going to miss participating in the Foxhunter Steeplechase – the 'Gold Cup' for amateur riders – because the trial has taken a lot longer than expected. Although still an amateur, Geoff is well known (as 'Perry' Mason) among the pro riders, including Steve Mitchell and Scot Barlow – arguably the two top pros. So when Scot Barlow is murdered – with Mitchell's pitchfork nonetheless – Geoff finds himself pulled into the case as a junior barrister. The problem is: which side is he on? Mitchell claims he has been framed, but Geoff knows there was tension between Mitchell and Barlow; in fact, Geoff stumbled across Barlow beaten and bloody not too long ago, and Barlow claimed it was Mitchell who had done the dirty work. To make matters worse, Julian Trent has somehow finagled is way out of prison and has sworn to hunt down Geoff unless he's a 'good little lawyer' and does what he's told in the Mitchell case. Geoff is left facing adversaries from all sides, tearing him between doing what is right and what will keep him alive.

Kidnapping is a fact of life. Always has been, always will be. Extorting a ransom is an age-old pastime, less risky and more lucrative than robbing banks.

Kidnapping, twentieth-century style, has meant train loads and 'plane loads of hostages, athletes killed in company at Munich, men of substance dying lonely deaths. All kidnappers are unstable, but the political variety, hungry for power and publicity as much as money, make quicksand look like rock.

Give me the straightforward criminal any day, the villain who seizes and says pay up or else. One does more or less know where one is, with those.

Kidnapping, you see, is my business.

My job, that is to say, as a partner in the firm of Liberty Market Ltd, is both to advise people at risk how best not to be kidnapped, and also to help negotiate with the kidnappers once a grab has taken place: to get the victim back alive for the least possible cost.

Every form of crime generates an opposing force, and to fraud, drugs and murder one could add the Kidnap Squad, except that the kidnap squad is unofficial and highly discreet… and is often us.

Не все в порядке в королевстве скачек. Прямо на ипподроме застрелился классный жокей Арт Мэтьюз. Его молодой коллега затевает самостоятельное расследование...

Один из самых динамичных романов знаменитого автора детективов.

Дик Фрэнсис (1920–2010) – один из самых именитых английских авторов, писавших в жанре детектива. За свою жизнь он создал более 30 бестселлеров, получивших международное признание. Его романы посвящены преимущественно миру скачек – Фрэнсис знал его не понаслышке, ведь он родился в семье жокея и сам был знаменитым жокеем. Этот мир полон азарта, здесь кипят нешуточные страсти вокруг великолепных лошадей и крупных ставок в тотализаторах, здесь есть чем поживиться мошенникам. Все это и послужило материалом для увлекательных романов, ставших бестселлерами во многих странах мира.