In the enjoyable fourth and final collaboration between Francis (1920–2010) and son Felix Francis, Captain Thomas Forsyth's tour of duty in Afghanistan is cut brutally short when he s badly wounded by a roadside bomb. His world is torn apart by the injury - the army is his life. Six months of leave to recuperate is a daunting prospect but not as bleak as the probability of never rejoining his regiment.

Tom returns to his childhood home in Lambourn, where his mother is a racehorse trainer and the First Lady of racing. Never having seen eye-to-eye with her, Tom doesn t expect a hero s welcome but even he s not prepared for the reception that awaits him.

When his mother s prize horse finishes a vastly disappointing last in a race he should have won, Tom discovers that the training business is on the edge, and facing a threat far more dangerous than a run of bad form. Tom finds himself on a very different, but just as deadly, battlefield, where again his military skills are tested. . . . Kill or be killed?