I didn't warm up to this audiobook mystery at first -- I don't know if it was the writing or the narration by Martin Jarvis. In the end, this was an enjoyable mystery but not as good as Dick Francis' earlier books. Perhaps Felix doesn't have as much storytelling skill as his father or perhaps this one was just not as appealing to me personally... For example, there was a section near the end that seemed quite unnecessary - the travelogue of Australia part - it came across as filler.

Hoowever, the best parts were classic Francis - the getting even with the bad guys con job was brilliant! It reminded me a bit of one of my favorite Francis mysteries, [b:High Stakes|8553|High Stakes|Dick Francis|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309283355s/8553.jpg|675143].
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On the first day of the Royal Ascot, a man steps forward claiming to be Ned Talbot's long-lost father. Barely an hour later, the man is found stabbed to death. Ned embarks on a race to solve his father's murder.

bookmaker finds out father not dead then sees him murdered and learns of horse switching plot

Compared to Dick Francis normal level this is slightly below what I would normally have expected. My suspicion is that his inexperienced son Felix Francis has had a bigger role in this novel than the size of the letters on the cover indicate.

There is one redeeming factor though, the occupation of the main character is, finally, bookmaker, allowing me to get to grip with some of the Greek language surrounding that occupation. Not a lot, but enough to make me raise this to four stars. For someone less interested, or more knowledgeable in that area, this is a solid three star book. ( )

It was an interesting view of the horse race society, but for a mystery it was quite slow and lackluster. Everything seemed to fall into place too conveniently, without much effort. ( )