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Matt Shepherd is a sane, sensible and fairly successful jump jockey. He has a nice cottage in Somerset and a pretty girlfriend Kendra. But his comfortable life is turned upside down when his friend and fellow jockey Jamie Mullin is accused of murder. And it's Matt who discovers the body of Sophie Bradford, Jamie's girlfriend. The couple had been seen having a row at a party shortly before, and police are convinced Jamie's the killer. Jamie tells anyone who will listen that he's innocent, but he hits the bottle with a vengeance and soon starts to fall apart. So it's left to Matt to start asking questions and to try to clear his friend – and there's someone around who will kill to keep things covered up. Lyndon Stacey is building up a good, solid collection of stories with horse themes, often set in the west of England. She's strong on the racecourse scenes, and has clearly done her homework on what goes on in the changing room. It always seems a tad unfair to compare writers like Stacey to Dick Francis, but it's perhaps inevitable, given the horsy territory. And like Francis, Stacey is at her best with the racing world scenes. She's also good at portraying an ordinary, decent bloke who suddenly finds himself out of his depth. The writing is crisp and competent, aside from the newspaper extracts, which have clearly been written by someone with a cloth ear for print journalism style. And the least convincing character by some way is the young journalist who probably wouldn't have got the job in the first place, and even if she had done, wouldn't have kept it for long! MURDER IN MIND is a good read and will keep you entertained in between Dick Francis books. We're not talking Cheltenham or Ascot here – more the sort of showing that would have an author cantering home at the mid-ranking racecourses!
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, August 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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