Shattered [text (large print)] / Dick Francis.

When jockey Martin Stukely dies after a fall at Cheltenham, his death accidentally embroils his friend Gerald Logan in a perilous search for a stolen videotape. Logan is a glassblower on the verge of widespread acclaim. Long accustomed to the frightful dangers inherent in working with molten glass, he is suddenly faced with terrifying threats to his business, his courage, and his life. Believing that the missing videotape contains priceless information, and wrongly convinced that Logan knows where to find it, a vicious group of villains is attempting to extract answers from Logan that he doesn't have. To survive, he must sort out the truth for himself. But the final race for the tape throws more hazards in Logan's way than his jockey friend could ever have imagined.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Francis's latest may be one of his less memorable rides, but even at 80, the old master proves he can still go all out in the final stretch. The hero here is Gerard Logan, a dashing English bachelor who owns and operates his own glassblowing shop in a charming village in the Cotswolds, popular with other artisans and tourists. Logan's problem is that his good friend, jockey Martin Stukely, gave him a videotape shortly before dying in a fall during a steeplechase at Cheltenham racetrack. That videotape is now missing, stolen by a tall, bearded gent who made off with it while Logan's back was turned. Now, a crew of thugs wants the tape. They are led by the cruel, aptly named Rose Payne, a ruthless bookmaker who knows what's on the tapeÄmedical breakthrough secrets worth millionsÄand will do anything to get it. Logan tries to reason with Payne, saying he no longer has the video, and besides, he doesn't even know what it contains. But Rose won't give up. She and her crew beat up Logan on several occasions, viciously trying to break his wrists so he can no longer practice his craft. Logan, no slouch when it comes to payback, finally mounts an all-out defense that includes not only physical reprisals, but also a crafty recovery of the missing object. Francis's 41st novel (To the Hilt; 10 Lb Penalty; etc.) lacks the pounding drive of his best efforts, and several elements of the plot are hard to swallow without cutting the author a lot of slack. Yet the spirited repartee, cleverly laid cues, infectiously likable characters and bang-up finale are all vintage Francis, and the fascinating glimpses the novel furnishes into the glassblowing trade are a bonus. 300,000 first printing. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus Review

How far can you get from the world of horse racing and still be the doyen of the equine thriller? Franciss latest hero doesnt get any closer to the winners circle than glass-blowing, but thats close enough for plenty of excitement. Minutes after his friend Martin Stukely is killed under his eyes at the last hurdle of a steeplechase, Gerard Logan gets a package from Eddie Payne, Martins valet, that Eddie insists Martin had meant for him. Inside is nothing but an unlabeled videotape. But it must be a doozy, because before Gerard has a chance to play it back, its stolen from his glassworks storefront, along with a parcel of money ready for the bank, by a cherubic white-bearded gent. In no time at all, Francis (Second Wind, 1999, etc.) buries the obvious questionswho was the thief racehorse owner Lloyd Baxter spotted just as he was being carried off by an epileptic seizure, and what made the video so valuable?beneath an avalanche of even more puzzling riddles. Why would a gang of ruffians break into Martins house, knocking out his family, to steal every video in sight, then return to give Gerards place the same treatment and threaten him with torture if he wont give up the tape? Why wont Eddies daughter Rose Robins, who obviously knows who gave the original video to Martin, tell Gerard who it was? Who is the mysterious assailant who nearly succeeds in breaking the wrists that Gerards livelihood depends on? How long will it be before Detective Constable Catherine Dodd sheds her maidenly modesty and her motorcycle leathers for Gerards embraces? And is there anybody in the county who isnt entangled in this web of conspiracy? So many crooks and crimes this time that youll need a racing form to sort them out. But Francis, though well below his best form, makes glass-blowing as fascinating and dangerous as steeplechasing.

Booklist Review

In his forty-first mystery, Francis introduces a new hero, a professional glassblower, thinly connected to the racing world by the crystal trophies he designs and by his friendship with Britain's top steeplechase jockey. Hero Gerard Logan, however, is very much in the mold of Francis front-runners in his stoicism and resourcefulness. Logan's jockey friend is killed at Cheltenham Races when his horse misses a fence and crushes him to death. Logan, still reeling from shock, has a mystery literally thrust into his hands when his late friend's valet gives him a videotape the jockey claimed could only be seen by Logan. Before Logan can view it, the tape is stolen from his shop in the Cotswolds. It soon becomes evident, as the jockey's home is ransacked and his wife and children gassed unconscious, and Logan's own home is stripped of all videotapes, that this particular tape is a coveted item. Logan is forced into discovering just how valuable the tape is, a search that involves unmasking a corrupt research scientist and, as in all Francis capers, encountering great physical danger. A top-notch thriller, fascinating for both the way it makes the exotic science of glassblowing relevant to solving the mystery and the skill with which Francis injects the ordinary world of the hero with bracing doses of paranoia. --Connie Fletcher

Library Journal Review

When jockey Martin Stukely dies in a fall, friend Gerard Logan inherits a videotape that several people would just kill for. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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