Publisher, Penguin Audio (September 2008)

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“Julian Trent, you have been found guilty by this court of perpetrating a violent and unprovoked attack on an innocent family including a charge of attempted murder. You have shown little or no remorse for your actions and I consider you a danger to society.”

When defense lawyer Geoffrey Mason hears the judge’s ruling at London’s Old Bailey, he quietly hopes that a substantial sentence will be handed down to his arrogant young client. That Julian Trent only receives eight years seems all too lenient. Little does Mason realize that he’ll be looking Trent in the eyes again much sooner than that.

Setting aside his barrister’s gown and wig, Mason heads to Sandown racetrack to don his colorful racing silks. As an amateur jockey, he fulfills his true passion by pounding the turf in the heat of a steeplechase. Yet when a fellow rider is brutally murdered—a pitchfork driven through his chest—Mason’s racing hobby soon becomes too close to his work. The prime suspect is one of their brethren, champion jockey Steve Mitchell, and the evidence against him seems overwhelming.

Mason is reluctant to heed Mitchell’s plea for legal help—but he soon finds himself at the center of a sinister web of violence, threats and intimidation. Mason is left fighting a battle of right and wrong, and more immediately, a battle of life and death…his own.

About the Authors: Dick Francis was born in South Wales in 1920. He was a young boy rider of distinction winning awards and trophies at horse shows throughout the United Kingdom. At the outbreak of World War II he joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot, flying fighter and bomber aircraft including the Spitfire and Lancaster.

Following the war, Dick Francis, son and grandson of jockeys, became a professional steeplechase jockey himself. He was Champion Jockey in 1954 and rode for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother for four years. He raced eight times in the world famous Grand National Steeplechase, nearly winning in 1956 when the Queen Mother's horse, Devon Loch, collapsed under him a few strides from victory. This incident, which he calls "both the high point and low point of my career as a jockey," was the impetus for him to begin a second career as a writer.

In January 1957 he retired from race riding and took up a pen. He became a racing feature writer for the London Sunday Express and published his racing autobiography, The Sport of Queens. Sports writing soon led to fiction writing. His first novel was published in 1962 and one followed each year until his 39th, and last, was published in September 2000.

Dick Francis was made an Officer of the most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1984, and was promoted to Commander of the Order (CBE) in June 2000. He was awarded the British Crime Writers Association Silver Dagger in 1965, Gold Dagger in 1980 and Cartier Diamond Dagger for his life's work in 1990. He is the recipient of four Edgar Allen Poe Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, including the Grand Master award in 1996. In 1998 was elected as a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.

He now lives in the Caribbean. In June 2000 he and his wife, Mary, who helped with much of the research for the books, celebrated their 53rd wedding anniversary. Sadly, Mary died later that year, bringing to an end one of the great literary partnerships of the twentieth century. However, a new partnership now blossoms with his younger son, Felix, who has helped with the research for Under Orders, the first Dick Francis novel for six years.

Felix Francis is the younger of Dick Francis’s two sons. Having spent seventeen years teaching A-level Physics, he took on the role of managing his father’s affairs in 1991. Over the last forty years, Felix has assisted with the research of many of the Dick Francis novels, not least Twice Shy, which drew on Felix’s experiences both as a Physics teacher and as a marksman, Shattered and Under Orders. With the publication of Dead Heat Felix took on a more significant role in the writing - Silks is the second novel of this father-and-son collaboration.