Customer Reviews
Gripping narrative - By: , 16 May 2002 
This work brings the world of racing (always a feature of Dick Francis books) into the world of banking. The narrator is Tim Ekaterin of the Paul Ekaterin Merchant bank. The story begins quite mildly with small problems within the bank such as competitors taking over companies that Eketarin’s were setting up. There is little doubt that someone inside the bank is passing on confidential information. Over the next three years the issues increase until the final solution to the puzzle. As usual Francis gives a very easy to read thriller.
Exciting and informative. - By: , 28 May 1999 
Is Dick Francis a masochist, or a man to be avoided? Never have I found an author so imaginative about beatings-up. No Francis hero ever gets theough a book without being bashed thoroughly & painfully, & Tim Ekaterin, the Banker of this book, is no exception, finding himselfin the last pages squashed beneath a horse sent berserk by drugs administered by the villain.
Tim Ekaterin is the rising star of his family's merchant bank, who knows his way around the racing world thanks to his mother's passion for it, but has never felt particularly drawn to it. All this changes when the bank is asked to finance the purchase by a stud owner of a top racehorse, Sandcastle, for stud purposes. Things appear to run smoothly, but then a high proportion of the stallion's first crop of foals are born with a variety of defects. Ruin stares the stud ownerin the face, & Tim is inexorably drawn into finding out just what is going on.
As usual with Francis, it's a case of a villain who startedin a small way, & was then seduced by the combined appeal of money & vengeance, &in the final pages the hero finds himself at his mercy...
Exciting stuff, with meticulous attention to detail. If you ever want to know about merchant banking, or how to investin a stallion, look no further.
