Riding high

The racing world loses one of its own when Jose Ramirez, a jockey whose arms bore the marks of drug use, is found dead from a knife wound. Alistair Rye was the final person to speak with him before he died, and that makes him the man the police want. Only two people can vouch that Rye is innocent: Rye himself and his wife. She holds the power to set the record straight, and the question hanging over the story is whether she will.

The novel is written by John Francome, a former champion National Hunt jockey who turned to fiction after his riding career. Drawing on his years around horses and jockeys, he builds the story around the pressures and secrets of the racecourse, where a reputation can be as fragile as a fall at the last fence.