Dead Heat

by Dick Francis, Felix Francis

Overview

On the heels of Under Orders, “Francis once again proves himself a master. Wow.” (BOOKLIST)

Max Moreton is a rising culinary star—until his guests fall victim to severe food poisoning—and then a bomb blast rips through the luncheon he’s catering. Two close calls are too close for comfort, and Max vows to protect his name, and himself, before it’s too late.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101207444
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/17/2007
Series:	A Dick Francis Novel
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	184,384
File size:	617 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Dick Francis (pictured with his son Felix Francis) was born in South Wales in 1920. He was a young 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.

He became one of the most successful postwar steeplechase jockeys, winning more than 350 races and riding for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. After his retirement from the saddle in 1957, he published an autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write more than forty acclaimed books, including the New York Times bestsellers Even Money and Silks.

A three-time Edgar Award winner, he also received the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association’s Cartier Diamond Dagger, was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, and was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2000. He died in February 2010, at age eighty-nine, and remains among the greatest thriller writers of all time.

Felix Francis (pictured with his father, Dick Francis), a graduate of London University, spent seventeen years teaching A-level physics before taking on an active role in his father’s career. He has assisted with the research of many of the Dick Francis novels, including Shattered, Under Orders, and Twice Shy, which drew on Felix’s experiences as a physics teacher and as an international marksman. He is coauthor with his father of the New York Times bestsellers Dead Heat, Silks, and Even Money. He lives in England.

Hometown:

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, British West Indies

Date of Birth:

October 31, 1920

Date of Death:

February 14, 2010

Place of Birth:

Tenby, Pembrokeshire, southwest Wales

Place of Death:

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, British West Indies

Education:

Dropped out of Maidenhead County School at age 15.

Editorial Reviews

It was the most painful episode of Max Moreton's young life. Just as he's beginning to gain full recognition as a chef, nearly all his guests at an elegant private party fall victim to severe food poisoning. The disaster leaves his culinary reputation in tatters, but worse is yet to come. The very next day, as he's catering an exclusive racetrack luncheon, a bomb goes off in the private boxes, killing kitchen staff and patrons alike. Max begins to visualize a bull's-eye with himself at its center. A thoroughbred novel by three-time Edgar winner Dick Francis and his son, Felix. (Felix Francis was the inspiration for a major character in Dick Francis' Twice Shy.)

…while it doesn't feature the Francis trademarks of high-strung horses in high-stakes races, Dead Heat doesn't abandon the sport as much as turn it inside out, so we can inspect one of the many small, labor-intensive businesses that operate behind the scenes in this rarefied and utterly exotic world.
—The New York Times

Marilyn Stasio

MWA Grand Master Francis's first collaboration with his son Felix, a former physics teacher who researched many of his father's previous bestsellers, introduces an engaging hero, though longtime fans may find certain plot elements, like an unlikely love interest and sinister figures somehow connected with shady racetrack doings, less than fresh. The reputation of Max Moreton, a young wunderkind chef with a restaurant in Newmarket, England, suffers after guests at an affair he caters fall ill with food poisoning. This calamity nearly jeopardizes another job-feeding several dozen attendees at a major horse race. While that meal goes off without a hitch, a terrorist's bomb decimates the crowd at the track. Despite the official theory that an unpopular Middle Eastern ruler at the event was responsible, the chef wonders whether the bombing is related to the earlier food poisoning and turns amateur sleuth. Crisp writing and well-paced action help offset the routine plotting. (Sept.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

Here's a book for dieters that will both give them a thrill and help them resist, at least momentarily, some of those always tempting weight-inducing foods. Michelin-starred chef Max Moreton is catering a gala dinner on the eve of a major horse race. Almost all the diners--along with Moreton and his staff--are hit with food poisoning, which of course threatens the very existence of Moreton's restaurant and career. And, if that weren't enough, the next day Moreton is nearly killed in a bomb explosion that leaves more than a dozen people dead. Before the mystery is solved, Moreton--an amateur sleuth--finds himself coping with an international conspiracy involving Argentinean polo ponies and a floundering American manufacturer of farm equipment, as well as with pesky local bureaucrats and a beautiful young violist--a victim of the food poisoning--who is suing him for damages and lost wages. (25 Feb 2008)
—Steve Forbes

Forbes Magazine

Max Moreton, chef and part owner of the Hay Net, an acclaimed restaurant in Newmarket, England, is suffering from what is apparently food poisoning. After an agonizing night, Max is alarmed when his assistant calls to say that he and several other staff members have suffered the same fate. When the Public Health Department seals the restaurant-owing to the poisoning of over 250 guests-Max fears his days as a top chef may be over, though he does have another big event to arrange. But someone has other plans for Max's Newmarket soiree-a bomb that blasts through the room-and Max will have to hone his investigative skills to discover what lies at the heart of these occurrences. As usual, Francis, joined for the first time by his son, keeps us all tuned in till the very last word. Martin Jarvis's excellent narration helps make this book another winner for Francis and his many fans. Highly recommended for all public libraries. [Books on Tape also has a version available: 9 CDs. unabridged. 10¾ hrs. 2007. ISBN

Library Journal

Legendary racing-mystery master Francis (Shattered, 2000, etc.) partners with son Felix to bring mayhem of many kinds to the Newmarket track. After a night he's spent huddled over his toilet sick as a dog, it's no consolation to restaurateur Max Moreton to learn that he hasn't been alone. Virtually everyone at the party at the Hay Net, his racing-themed restaurant, has become ill. Soon enough, longtime patrons begin to cancel their reservations; the Cambridge County Council seals his kitchen; and violist Caroline Aston, whose quartet had played at the party, announces her plans to sue him. By that time, however, Max already has bigger problems. A bomb planted in the stands at the 2,000 Guineas, a high-profile race run the day after the debacle at the Hay Net, has killed 19 and sent dozens more to the hospital. Are the two incidents connected, and if so, how? It doesn't take Max long to satisfy himself that his meal was sabotaged by the unboiled kidney beans someone introduced into a sauce that didn't call for them. But why would anyone seek to poison 250 diners the night before detonating a bomb? Working with Caroline Aston, who's morphed rapidly and improbably from legal antagonist to lover, Max focuses on the people who attended the party but not the race. Soon enough, some conscientious sleuthing and lucky breaks reveal an ingenious smuggling plot Max is determined to end-that is, if the powers arrayed against him don't succeed in killing him first by means of arson or a car crash or a polo mallet or another bomb. Clunky expository dialogue tells you more than you probably want to know about food preparation and concertizing. But the mystery is engaging, and durable Max is a worthyaddition to Francis's gallery of racetrack detectives.

Kirkus Reviews

Surprisingly, for a Dick Francis novel, horses feature here only peripherally. Max Moreton is a superstar chef whose life gets complicated when more than 200 people get sick after eating a dinner he catered at a racetrack. The next day, while he’s serving lunch at another race, the glass-fronted box of the grandstand explodes. Max turns sleuth to save his reputation and his restaurant. Martin Jarvis perfectly depicts Max—young, determined, and newly in love. Jarvis’s flexibility is remarkable. He creates different voices and accents for supporting characters ranging from Max’s girlfriend, Caroline, to an elderly neighbor, a Wisconsin concierge, and a Russian importer. A.B. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

DEC 07/JAN 08 - AudioFile