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MARQUIS DE FRAUD, THE
by Philip Reed
Epic Press, June 2001
335 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0970872208


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Upon first impression, you could believe that Malcolm Ravling was a man of means. He dresses impeccably, has that British accent that Americans are so fond of and lives large. He dispenses financial advice and manages other people's investments. Let me rephrase thatãhe uses other people's investments to make a big pile of money for himself. Whether it be his wife's parents or an old woman with diabetes, it doesn't matterãhe's in the game and would cheat his own mother out of her porridge spoon if it were made of silver.

However, he more than meets his match when he invests in a horse owned by Cliff Dante and Dan Van Berg. Cliff is a trainer who has a good eye for a horse with potential, and the Relaunch colt is just such a horse. Cliff is also temporarily down on his luck. His wife has left him, tired of living with the dreams of the next big win and putting her own future aside. When Cliff and friends make a great bet and come into a pile of money, they begin to fantasize about the next big deal. But that dream is shattered when Malcolm absconds with Cliff's retirement money and the horse. Cliff and Dan follow Malcolm to Scotland and find a clever way to outsmart him. The plot gets kind of tricky, but all the threads are resolved in a fair way.

In the preface of the book, Reed mentions that he based the narrative on a true story. Obviously, he took some liberties with that event but it seems plausible enough, if rather drawn out. After reading his earlier "car noir" series featuring Harold Dodge, I was expecting to see more humor and better characterization. The Marquis de Fraud suffers in comparison to those books, in my opinion. Part of the problem is the fact that we don't have one central character to focus on. Cliff would seem to be the most likely candidate, but he isn't developed enough to engage the reader throughout the length of the book. The world of horse racing is very well portrayed, and that should appeal to fans of that particular setting.

Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, June 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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