 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
- Mystery - |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Shattered |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Shattered byDick Francis Michael Joseph Publishers 288 pages, September 2000 ISBN 0178144538 Reviewed by our South African Editor, Merilyn Tomkins Adams Bookshop, Durban, SA - adams.west@saol.com When jockey Martin Stukely dies following a fall in a steeplechase at Cheltenham races, he accidentally embroils his friend Gerard Logan in a dangerous search for a stolen videotape. Gerard Logan, half artist, half artisan is a glass-blower on the verge of widespread acclaim for the originality and ingenuity of his creations. He has long been accustomed to the frightful dangers inherent in handling molten glass, not to mention maintaining a glass-making furnace at seldom less than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit day and night. But now he is suddenly faced with a series of unexpected and terrifying threats, first to his livelihood, then to his courage and finally, to his life. Believing the missing videotape to contain priceless information, and wrongly convinced that Logan knows where to find it, a vicious group of villains led by Rose who has all the characteristics of a psychopath, sets out to extract from him the information he does not have. Logan realizes that in order to protect himself and his business, indeed to survive, he has to find out the truth. He has some very thorny experiences and is forced to enlist the help of trusted friends as bodyguard. Eventually the truth emerges - there is more than one videotape. One has vital medical information that is a possible cure for cancer. The other contains details of the making of a priceless necklace. The final race to the videotape throws more hurdles and more hazards in Logan's way than his dead jockey friend could ever have imagined. Glass shatters. Logan doesn't - but an innocent life is lost - and it's a close-run thing. A can’t-put-it-down read, this is vintage Dick Francis. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||