Heidi Perks is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Now You See Her, which was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick, Come Back for Me, Three Perfect Liars, The Whispers and The Other Guest. The Last Resort is her sixth novel. Heidi is a voracious reader of crime and thrillers and is fascinated by the darker side of our closest relationships. Heidi lives in Bournemouth with her husband and two children.

Heidi Perks

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Felix Francis

DICK FRANCIS was one of the most successful post-war National Hunt jockeys and author of forty-three bestselling novels, a volume of short stories (Field of 13), the biography of Lester Piggott and his own autobiography (The Sport of Queens). He was rightly acclaimed as one of the greatest thriller writers in the world. 
 
 Since his death, his son FELIX FRANCIS has taken over the literary reigns from his father and Dick's legacy lives on through the Dick Francis novels. The Francis flair is clear for all to see in these national treasure thrillers, and readers will appreciate the sporadic reappearance of beloved series characters Sid Halley and Jeff Hinkley.

When Mark Shillingford commentates on a race in which his twin sister Clare, a successful jockey, comes in third, he can't help but be suspicious. He knows she should have won. Did she lose on purpose? Was the race fixed? Why would she do something so out of character? 
 
That night, Mark confronts Clare with his suspicions, but she storms off after an explosive argument. It's the last time Mark sees her alive. Hours later, Clare jumps to her death from the balcony of a London hotel . . . or so it seems. 
 
Devastated by her death, and overcome with guilt, Mark goes in search of answers. What led Clare to take her own life? 
 
Or was it not suicide at all . . .?

Bloodline

Dick Francis

A beautiful Italian girl driving home in an open top sports car, a little boy playing on a south Coast beach and the Senior Steward of the Jockey Club on his way to a press reception in Baltimore. One after the other they suffer the same nightmare ordeal - kidnapping. But there is one thing connecting these particular cases. For the Italian girl is a jockey and the little boy an only son of a race horse owner. A picture of the person behind this interanational chain of crime starts to emerge - a lover of Verdi, a man with a cool and calculating brain and an aficionado of the racing world. Andrew Doublas, brought in to advise and help the vicitms and their families, proceeds with all his customary diplomacy and courage. Only to find himeself playing a dangerous part: the role usually reserved for his clients...

The Danger

Ex-jockey Sid Halley is asked to investigate possible doping of the horses of thoroughbred trainer George Casper - whose once-successful mounts have been failing spectacularly on the race track. 
 
At the same time he learns that a conman has left his ex-wife Jenny facing a jail sentence over a fake charity, while the Jockey Club want him to look into certain powerful syndicates who may be acting in a ruthless and illegal manner. 
 
Three dangerous cases, three ways to die - Sid is back on home turf . . .

Whip Hand

"Julian Trent, you have been found guilty by this court of perpetrating a violent and unprovoked attack on an innocent family including a charge of attempted murder. You have shown little or no remorse for your actions and I consider you a danger to society." 
 
When defence barrister Geoffrey Mason hears the judge's verdict, he quietly hopes that a long and arduous custodial sentence will be handed down to his arrogant young client. That Julian Trent only receives eight years seems all too lenient. Little does Mason expect that he'll be looking Trent in the eyes again much sooner than he'd ever imagined. 
 
Setting aside his barrister's wig, Mason heads to Sandown to don his racing silks. An amateur jockey, his true passion is to be found in the saddle on a Thoroughbred, pounding the turf in the heat of a steeplechase. But when a fellow rider is brutally murdered - a pitchfork driven through his chest - Mason's racing life soon becomes all too close to his working life. The prime suspect is one of their brethren, champion jockey Steve Mitchell; the evidence is overwhelming. 
 
Mason is reluctant to heed Mitchell's pleas for legal advice - but soon he finds himself at the centre of a sinister web of threat and intimidation. Mason is left fighting a battle of right and wrong, and more immediately, a battle of life and death... his own.

Silks

Nick Foxton once won the Grand National, but a terrible accident cut his racing career short. Years later, he is returning to Aintree - as a spectator - when he once more finds himself the centre of attention. 
 
Minutes before the big race, Nick's colleague, financial adviser Herb Kovak, is shot dead and the gunman vanishes into the crowd. The police want answers but Nick can't explain why anyone would want Herb dead. 
 
Yet when he finds a threatening message crumpled in Herb's coat, Nick begins questioning all he knows about his friend. And on learning that he is the benefactor of Herb's will, Nick is certain that something is not right. 
 
A fact confirmed when Nick discovers he's next in the killer's firing line.

Gamble

Tony Beach will do anything for a quiet life. But when a party to celebrate the end of the racing season ends in eight violent deaths, he is drawn reluctantly into the subsequent investigation. 
 Meanwhile, the police, having evidence of the sale of illicit alcohol at a local club, ask for Tony's help in closing it down. Thanks to his intervention, Tony comes to the attention of the criminal underworld. 
 And that's when he reluctantly realizes that the deaths and the illicit alcohol are connected. 
 Tony doesn't want to be a hero. But if the choice is that or dying...

Proof

Gene Hawkins is a fixer for his boss Mr Keeble: if Keeble has a problem, Gene fixes it. It's that simple. Sometimes it requires his Luger - mostly it doesn't. 
 Now Keeble has summoned Gene back from a long-overdue holiday. It seems that a very expensive stallion has been taken in Kentucky. It's the third high-value kidnapping in a few years. 
 Keeble wants his horse back. Gene is asked to go out there and find it. But what Gene doesn't know is that he's about to get involved with blackmailers and murderers. Looks like that Lugar will see some use...

Blood Sport

Sid Halley, ex-champion jockey turned investigator, is facing his toughest test. 
 
A number of horses have been brutally mutilated, provoking horror all round. Even Sid's friend, broadcaster Ellis Quint, has been moved to make a shocking programme about it. 
 
But when Sid is asked to investigate, the evidence he uncovers points in a startling direction and he finds that his head must overrule his heart. 
 
As friends and associates are angered by his discoveries, so Sid is drawn into a terrible web of conspiracy and intrigue. Escape will require all his legendary wits and cunning . . .

Come To Grief

Champion jockey Sid Halley retired from racing when his hand was smashed in a fall. Now he works as a private detective - which is proving to be no less dangerous to life and limb. 
 
 Recuperating from a bullet wound, Sid is asked by his father-in-law to look into some potentially shady activity involving Seabury racecourse and a ruthless property dealer. 
 
But the closer Sid gets to those determined to get their hands on Seabury, the more he finds himself in harm's way. The odds are against him - but that's exactly when Sid is at his best ....

Odds Against

When Sir Richard Stewart, the racing authority chairman, demands Sid Halley investigates suspicious race results, he receives a firm no. Halley retired years ago, swearing he'd never go back. 
 
But then Sir Richard is found dead and Halley receives a threatening call from a man insisting he investigates the alleged race-fixing. Halley wants to steer clear, but when his young daughter goes missing he realizes he may pay the ultimate price. 
 
With his family in danger, how can Sid refuse? Extreme situations demand extreme solutions and Sid will do anything to get his life back, or die trying.

Refusal

When Kelly Hughes rides the favourite into second place, he gets penalized for his trouble. Not only has he lost the race, but also his licence, as the Jockey Club suspends him - believing he threw the race. 
 
Knowing that the problem lay with the horse's performance, not his own, Kelly suspects he was framed and sets about finding out who has set him up. 
 
But the closer he gets to the perpetrators, the more danger he finds himself in. Now there's more than his reputation and career at stake. 
 
There's also his life . . .

Enquiry

Daniel Roke owns a stud farm in Australia. He's young, smart, hard-working and desperate for some excitement - which makes him the ideal candidate for the visiting Earl of October. 
 The Earl is concerned about a horse-doping scandal that is destroying English racing. He wants to pay Daniel to come back with him, pose as a highly corruptible stable lad and discover who is behind it. 
 Unfortunately, when Daniel agrees he doesn't realise how close he'll have to get to find the truth. Nor how determined the criminals will be to prevent him living long enough to tell anyone...

For Kicks

Tor Kelsey, an undercover agent for the Jockey Club's security service is involved in the attempt to rid racing of one of its most notorious villains, Julius Apollo Filmer. The court however, does not go along with their beliefs, but Tor knows that to let Julius even suspect the service are still on his tail would mean certain death for a number of witnesses. Meanwhile, several racehorse owners have planned a luxurious train trip across Canada, with race meetings fixed for every major city. Julius Apollo Filmer and Tor are on the passenger list. The beautiful journey through the Rockies gets uglier by the minute and Tor finds himself pushed to dangerous limits to defeat Filmer's wily scheming.

The Edge

Jonah Dereham is a bloodstock agent who buys and sells horses for his clients. As an ex-jockey, it's the ideal quiet life - until Jonah is attacked by thugs out to sabotage his business. 
 
Unfortunately for them, Jonah's a man with a steely resolve. He's determined to find out who is trying to ruin him, and why. 
 
But staying honest is more dangerous than Jonah could have imagined. 
 
And with his horses, his business and his own life on the line, Jonah must hit back - before he's taken down for good . . .

Knock Down

Malcolm Pembroke didn't get rich without making a few enemies - not least the five wives and nine children left like wreckage in his wake. 
But when Moira, his fifth wife, is murdered and Malcolm believes that someone is out to get him, he knows of only one person he can turn to: his estranged son Ian. 
Ian - an amateur jockey - wants nothing to do with his father until it becomes clear the old man's life is in danger. And worst of all the evidence suggests it's from someone in the family . . .

Hot Money

Free choice? There's no such thing, according to Lee Morris. Choice is pre-ordained by your personality. Stratton Park racecourse faces ruin in the hands of a squabbling family. Lee is slowly sucked into the turmoil, unwillingly on the surface but half-understanding the deep compulsions that influence his decisions. One road leads to safety, another to death. How do you know which is which? Lee's choices and their consequences bring deadly results, but the road out of the quicksand is there, if he can find it. Horses and racing are familiar ingredients, but this time there are also children, houses, roots and decisions. Danger? Naturally. Stratton Park racecourse is worth multi-millions, and all of the Stratton family are playing to win.

Decider

As an amateur jockey, Roland Britten was lucky, and as an accountant he was rigorous. He knew he was on the hate list of several fraudsters, but never thought pen-pushers got kidnapped. And not from a racecourse right after beating the odds to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup. 
 
Held prisoner, Britten has no idea who his kidnappers are nor why they have abducted him. Only when resourceful school headmistress Hilary Pinlock gives him the opportunity to escape is he able to seriously think about what has happened and turn his logical mind to track down his abductors . . .

Risk

Bert Checkov, a racing correspondent, drunkenly confesses to fellow Fleet Street hack James Tyrone that he's been giving his readers bum tips for years. Five minutes later, Checkov's fallen out a seventh floor window. 
 Tyrone has a nose for a story and he's convinced there's more to his friend's death than meets the eye. When he starts digging, he discovers that many of Checkov's tips never even made it to the start. 
 But the deeper Tyrone gets, the dirtier and more dangerous this business appears to be. If he's not careful he'll be following Checkov to his death...

Forfeit

Physics teacher (and crack shot) Jonathan Derry is given some unusual tapes to look after by a friend. They hold a computer programme which functions as a bookie-breaking betting system. 
 When Jonathan's friend is killed in a suspicious explosion and two thugs turn up at his house waving guns and demanding the tapes, Jonathan realises that he's been handed a whole lot more trouble. 
 Jonathan knows he won't be left alone unless he gives them what they want. However, he decides to play his own game. After all, he's a crack shot. He can look after himself - can't he?

Twice Shy

At midnight Neil Griffon's home is broken into and he is abducted by masked men. When he wakes up, hours later, Neil discovers that 'unless he cooperates' his kidnappers will destroy his father's racing stable, his precious horses and even Neil himself. 
 
Returning to the stables, Neil can tell no one about his ordeal, or his kidnappers' threats of violence if he does not comply with their demands. 
 
Trapped, Neil refuses to surrender - and devises an ingenious scheme to beat his kidnappers at their own game.

Bonecrack

Derek Franklin, injured steeplechase jockey, is at end of his career when he is thrust into chaos following the accidental death of his brother Greville who was an importer of semi-precious stones.

Straight

Jeff Hinkley, undercover investigator for the British Horseracing Authority, is looking into the shady activities of a racehorse trainer. Tailing his quarry through the Cheltenham Racing Festival, Jeff unexpectedly is witness to a gruesome murder. Could it be connected to the trainer's recent ban for administering illegal drugs to his horses? 
 
Days later, more horses test positive for prohibited stimulants, a scandal that could throw horse-racing into disrepute. To limit the damage to the sport, it's critical that Jeff find the perpetrator . . . but he'll soon learn he's up against someone who will stop at nothing to prevail.

Damage

The abridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Dick Francis's thriller, Under Orders, read by Martin Jarvis. 
 
"Sadly, death at the races is not uncommon. However, three in one afternoon was sufficiently unusual to raise more than an eyebrow." 
 
It's the third death that really troubles former champion jump-jockey Sid Halley. He knows the perils of racing all too well - but in his day, jockeys didn't usually reach the finishing line with three .38 rounds in the chest. But this is precisely how he finds Huw Walker - the new winner of the Triumph Hurdle and Halley's friend. Now former friend. 
 
Walker was riding one of Lord Enstone's horses in the Hurdle and it was the inimitable owner who invited Halley in the first place. His brief: to make discrete enquiries into alleged race fixing. Are results being rigged? Are bookies taking a cut? And if so, are trainers and jockeys playing a dangerous game with stakes far higher than they realise ... 
 
Halley's quest for answers draws him ever deeper into the darker side of the race game, in a life-or-death power-play that will push him to his very limits - both professionally and personally. 
 
"A New Dick Francis is always a cause for celebration" - Mail on Sunday.

Under Orders

When inventor Steven Scott abruptly fires his winning trainer Jody Leeds, the racing world is shocked and disgusted - though not quite as angry as Leeds, who swears revenge on his former friend. 
Now, Steven is not only in fear of losing everything - but also his life. Somehow, he must prove to the world that Leeds is a vicious crook - or die trying.

High Stakes

Valentine, a blind, confused and dying old man, seeking his peace with God, makes his last confession to a visiting friend, Thoms Lyon, mistaking him for a priest. Thomas, in Newmarket to research for a new film, is placed in a moral dilemma. Wild horses wouldn't drag from a priest the secrets of the confessional - but then Thomas is not a priest. Should he tell what he knows from the confession, or not? He discovers that the solution to his quandary could mean the difference between life and death. WILD HORSES is a masterly mix of convincing characters, fine writing and an inscrutable and ingenious plot.

Wild Horses

Operating as an undercover investigator for the British Horseracing Authority, Jeff is approached by the multiple-champion jockey, Dave Swinton, to discuss the delicate matter of his losing races on purpose. 
 
Shortly after Jeff narrowly escapes a certain and grisly death, the body Dave Swinton is found in his burnt out car at a deserted beauty spot in Oxfordshire. The police think it's a suicide, but Jeff is not so sure. He starts to investigate those races that Swinton could have intentionally lost, but soon discovers instead that there are those who would prevent him from doing so, at any cost.

Front Runner

Steeplechase jockey Kit Fielding has just ridden another winner for his patron - the Princess - when his distraught twin sister Holly comes to him with terrible news. A newspaper is printing stories which will put her husband, Bobby Allardeck, and his stables out of business. 
 
Putting aside the age-old Fielding-Allardeck feud, Kit decides to try to find out who is behind these cruel stories. 
 
This, he quickly discovers, upsets many ruthless and powerful people who'll do anything to protect themselves. 
 
But this is family and Kit will risk everything - including his neck - to find the truth.

Break In

&lsquo;I wondered if I was dying. I wasn&rsquo;t afraid to die but, such was the pain in my gut, I wished it would happen soon.&rsquo; 
 
The night before the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket sees the great and the good of the horse-racing community gathered for a prestigious black-tie Gala dinner. It is a fitting testament to the glamour of the occasion that top chef Max Moreton is cooking the evening&rsquo;s meal. 
 
Max is something of a celebrity in Newmarket circles. He is founder of the racing town&rsquo;s favourite Michelin-starred restaurant, the Hay Net. However, spending the night retching in the throes of agony is the last thing Max expects. But much worse is to come...his food is suspected of putting twenty-four of the dinner guests in hospital. Max&rsquo;s pride and professionalism tells him all is not as it seems. 
 
Within hours, Max&rsquo;s restaurant is forcibly closed, his reputation teeters on the brink of ruin, and a court case looms. But the day is far from over, and soon Max Moreton finds himself desperately fighting for more than just his livelihood... 
 
Dead Heat is the latest searing, intrigue-filled blockbuster from the Grand Master of thriller writing.

Dead Heat

Seventeen-year-old Benedict Juliard's ambitions of becoming a steeplechase jockey are dashed when he's falsely accused of taking drugs. For his estranged father, however, this is an opportunity. 
 A wealthy businessman running for a parliamentary by-election in Dorset, Juliard Senior needs all the help he can get - especially when the campaign moves from mudslinging to something more deadly. 
 Now young Benedict has to grow up fast, not only to find out who is trying to harm his father's chances of election but also to keep him alive long enough to stay in the race...

10-Lb Penalty

Tim Ekaterin has a lot of money. Unfortunately, it is other people's, and it's his job to invest it wisely, or get fired. And he's taken a big risk: using £5 million of the bank's money to fund a champion racing stallion stud. 
 
When the resulting foals have birth defects, Tim decides that there may be something else going on at the stables. His suspicions are confirmed when one of those helping with the horses is murdered. 
 
Determined to get to the bottom of why anyone would do this, Tim puts himself in danger to discover the truth.

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