Eavesdropper - John Francome and James MacGregor (First edition)

To Sir Denby Croft, senior steward of the Jockey Club, the disciplining of a trainer and a jockey for 'pulling' a race was simply all in a day's work. They protested their innocence, but then they would, wouldn't they? But things began to go wrong for Sir Denby that very afternoon; blackmail - and at a man's own club! And shortly thereafter, there was a brutal murder at the races. And a cloud of corruption, suspicion and violence threatened to overwhelm the National Hunt season.

James Thackeray, racing journalist, tipster, talented amateur jockey, had career and romantic problems of his own. But it was his bad luck to discover the corpse in question in a horsebox in Newbury. And from then on James was a marked man, his only hope to discover the truth before the villains destroyed him, professionally and perhaps even physically. Desperately he sought for salvation within the murky rituals of the racing establishment, but by the time the Aintree meeting approached, the sands were running out for James. Saddling up for the Grand National might be the last thing he ever did.

Fast-running, effortlessly authentic, EAVESDROPPER is a racing thriller in the Dick Francis tradition that only an insider like John Francome, National Hunt's favourite son, could have devised.