Lead Review

  • Book: Iced
  • Location: St Moritz
  • Author: Felix Francis

Review Author: Tina Hartas

Location

Content

Miles Pussett, not yet 30, now gets his adrenaline rush hurtling down the Cresta Run in St Moritz. This has replaced his earlier thrill-seeking as a steeplechase jockey – a career he gave up (or a career that gave him up) 7 years ago. In St Moritz he is pressured by a chance encounter with his old trainer into helping out with two horses entered in the annual White Turf horse racing festival held on the frozen snow-covered lake – even though he swore he would never again go near a meet. Miles becomes suspicious of the legitimacy of one of the results, and decides to investigate. His actions are not welcomed, and someone sets out to deter him quite violently. The story bowls along nicely and Miles eventually, of course, solves the mystery and justice is dispensed.

Alternate passages of the book swing between the present day in St Moritz and Miles’ rise towards fame – and then descent into failure – as a steeplechaser. His father, killed in a car crash when Miles was 12, was a champion jockey and Miles had too much to live up to. His mother later committed suicide – Miles had a lot of demons to cope with. But he had found some peace with a new girl friend and with his adventures on the Run.

The book is of an imaginative story competently told. It is in the tradition of father and son Dick Francis and Felix Francis  novels – and, as such, is perhaps somewhat formulaic. To appreciate the book fully you have to be totally into racing. I, sadly, am not… I confess I speed read the pages crammed full of descriptions of individual British courses, and of the mechanics of individual races in which Miles rode. I focussed on events in St Moritz.

Not the most profound of reads, but one that I have no doubt will delight the ranks of Felix fans.

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