Shattered
   Dick Francis
   (Occasional Reader Reviewer Marjie Cross)
  2000 Penguin/Putnam
    ISBN: 0399146601


Gerard Logan is a British glass blower with a taste for horse racing. His close friend, jockey Martin Stukely, is killed in a freak accident during a race, thus casting a bleak pall for the approaching millennium celebrations.

Gerard comes into possession of a videotape entrusted to him by Martin, & before he can view the tape's contents it is stolen by a burglar.

When a separate group of vicious horse handicappers demands the tape, Gerard has trouble convincing them of its disappearance. Gerard is thus compelled to discover the mystery of the tape, in turn preserving the safety of his late friend's family & reputation.

Occasional Reader Reviewer Marjie Cross writes:

Even after forty years, Francis does not fail to thrill, & Shattered is a marvelous, fast-paced end to a career of consistently good writing for this grand master of the suspense genre.

Gerard Logan is a classic Francis trademark protagonist -- a handsome, intelligent soul involved in some way with horse racing. In this case, Gerard is not a jockey but a glass blower, & Dick Francis gives us in great detail the aspects of his work. This author is reknown for meticulously researching such things, & it makes for fascinating reading.

In what may prove to be (sadly) his last book, Dick Francis adds another protagonist to his stable of memorable characters his readers have enjoyed over four decades.

More from Dick Francis: Longshot; Whip Hand; Come to Grief; Second Wind & To the Hilt -- among many others.
(09/23/01)

Marjie Cross

Marjie Cross lives in Virginia & works in the Internet technology field. When she is not at the computer she's either out mountain & trail biking or curled up at home reading a mystery or romance novel.