Charles Todd, an artist specialising in horse paintings visits a friend in Australia and becomes entangled in a conspiracy of racing, wine, women and murder.

Dick Francis has written thirty-nine novels, a volume of short stories (Field of 13), his autobiography (The Sport of Queens) and the biography of Lester Piggott. He is rightly acclaimed as one of greatest thriller writers in the world. He has received many awards, amongst them the prestigious Crime Writers Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the genre, and the Mystery Writers of America have given him three Edgar Allan Poe awards for the best novel of the year, and in 1996 mad him a Grand Master for a lifetime's achievement. He was awarded the CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 2000. Dick Francis divides his time between England and an island in the Caribbean.