Why a Booktrail?
2000s: The chaotic and deadly world of horseracing
Crisis
What you need to know before your trail
Harrison Foster is a lawyer by training but works as a crisis manager for a London firm that specializes in such matters. Summoned to Newmarket after a fire in the Chadwick Stables slaughters six very valuable horses, including the short-priced favourite for the Derby, Harry (as he is known) finds there is far more to the ‘simple’ fire than initially meets the eye. For a start, human remains are found amongst the equestrian ones in the burnt-out shell. All the stable staff are accounted for, so who is the mystery victim?
Harry knows very little about horses, indeed he positively dislikes them, but he is thrust unwillingly into the world of Thoroughbred racing where the standard of care of the equine stars is far higher than that of the humans who attend to them.
The Chadwick family are a dysfunctional racing dynasty, with the emphasis being on the nasty. Resentment between the generations is rife and sibling rivalry bubbles away like volcanic magma beneath a thin crust of respectability.
Travel Guide
Newmarket
The world of Newmarket and behind the scenes at the races
The Castleton House stables are fictional but are described int the novel as being “one of the finest racehorse training establishments in the country, with a list of owners that included not just Sheikh Karim but also the great and the good of British racing.
Newmarket racecourse is of course real and a very famous race track. When a dead body is found amongst the animals however, the mood changes….but the horses are soon moved to other stables whilst the police investigation goes on. You get a real sense of what goes on behind the scenes of this racecourse and the logistics in moving so many horses and looking after them in the style theyhave become accustomed to. Affterall, these horses are the racecourses most valuable and important possessions.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Crisis
Destination : Newmarket Author/Guide: Felix Francis Departure Time: 2000s
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