When defence barrister Geoffrey Mason hears the judge's guilty verdict, he quietly hopes that a long and arduous custodial sentence will be handed down to his arrogant young client. That Julian...

Jamaica Inn stands alone on Bodmin Moor, stark and forbidding, its walls tainted with corruption. Young Mary Yellon soon learns of her uncle Joss Merlyn's strange trade here. But does he deal in...

To the Jockey Club, the racing world would be a better place without Julius Apollo Filmer. An expert in corruption with a devastating line in witness intimidation - and proving to be a slippery...

As an amateur jockey, Roland Britten was lucky: as an accountant he was zealous. He knew he was on the hate-list of several fraudsters, but never thought pen-pushers got kidnapped. Not from a...

Sid Halley, the ex-champion jockey turned investigator who appears in ‘Odds Against and Whip Hand’, is back facing new dilemmas and dangers. The opening finds him having uncovered an obnoxious...

'An Old Man’s Love', Trollope’s last complete novel, was finished seven months before his death, when he was suffering from ill health and was in constant pain. The old man of the title,...

Tim Ekaterin's bank is about to invest in a œ5million stallion called Sandcastle. But racing is riddled with all kinds of Tim Ekaterin’s merchant bank, like all banks, only invests in sure...

Henry Grey doesn't particularly care for having been born the heir to an earldom. He is a reserved young man whose greatest problem is his mother's match-making plots and whose greatest joy is to...

On the first day of Royal Ascot, the crowd rejoices in a string of winning favourites. Ned Talbot has worked all his life as a bookmaker - taking over the family business from his grandfather - so...

For millionaire jockey Alan York, winning is a bonus. For Joe Nantwich, victory means no cushy backhanders. And for Bill Davidson, front-running on strongly fancied Admiral, triumph is an...

Bestselling thriller writer Dick Francis made his first career as a champion steeplechase jockey. In his autobiography he tells of his development as a rider, from his first attempts on a donkey...

Philip Nore is nearing the end as a jockey. George Millace is finished in photography. The difference is that Millace is dead - and Nore has discovered his secret: a set of files which would blow...