Book review: Mystery keeps ahead of the chasing pack

Felix Francis' engaging narrative is fuelled by racing insight.

• Dark Horse 
• Felix Francis 
• Zaffre Books, €24.99 

Set between Ireland and England, Dark Horse focuses on a successful, young, female Irish jockey, Imogen Duffy.

Imogen narrates the first two-thirds of the novel. She’s a likeable character, one who it is easy to empathise with — particularly when she faces challenges.

She’s ambitious and her career is boosted when she wins a race at the Cheltenham Festival, which gives her the opportunity to get away from Ireland when she is offered a position at a racing stable in Lambourn — the Berkshire village known as ‘the valley of the racehorse’.

It’s not only because of her career that she wants to leave Ireland, Imogen also wants to escape from Liam, her former boyfriend who is also a jockey.

She’s grown increasingly ashamed with how she had put up with his controlling behaviour and his jealousy about her success. 

When she breaks off their relationship, he attacks her and says he’d kill her rather than allow her to leave him.

Unfortunately, Liam follows Imogen to England where he stalks, threatens, and tries to destroy her career and reputation. 

When he is murdered, she is the obvious suspect when her fingerprints are found on the weapon, and she is inevitably charged.

Imogen’s father Patrick Duffy turns to Sid Halley for help.

Halley is a character who appears in seven of the author’s novels. He is a one-handed champion steeplechase jockey turned private investigator, and he narrates the last third of the novel.

He is reluctant at first to get involved but is persuaded to do so when Patrick informs him and his wife that he was the surgeon who saved her leg. 

Halley starts to investigate and quickly finds that he is being stalked and threatened. 

Imogen’s solicitor and barrister are not confident she will be acquitted, it is up to Halley to show them how they defend her.

Author Felix is the son of Dick Francis, bestselling novelist and jockey, and co-wrote a number of books with his father before the latter’s death in 2010. His solo works since then have been hugely successful.

Readers will learn a lot about the racing industry in Dark Horse, including the training of horses, how jockeys are paid, how they further their careers, and the differences between racing in Ireland and England.

The author emphasises the competitiveness between the countries and pays attention to races during the Cheltenham Festival, the Grand National at Aintree, and at less well-known Newton Abbot and Windsor.

You don’t have to be a fan of the sport to enjoy reading about it, Francis makes it so interesting. 

For instance, he informs readers that horse racing on Sundays in England was banned until 1992 due to protests by various groups including the Lord’s Day Observance Society. 

Even then it was illegal to charge a fee for horse racing; so, to get around this, spectators at Doncaster paid to listen to an army band (the Irish Guards) and could then enjoy the racing for free.

Francis handles the issues of stalking and mental health with mastery. 

Liam’s behaviour towards Imogen is frightening, and her reaction to his obsession with her is compelling. 

The awful effects of unsubstantiated media coverage are infuriating, how people can so quickly believe the worst even about people they know.

Dark Horse is gripping and it’s fast-paced, driven by the interesting characters and a plot which keeps you guessing. Recommended.