Places Reversed

Description

It’s the Deauville yearling sales, and we arrive as former amateur jockey, now specialist banker, Freddie Lyons, is about to be wiped out financially—apparently ripped off by his bloodstock agent. His Russian clients, whose funds he loses along with his own, refuse to wear the losses, and seem to have Novichoked his business partner; and Penny, the ex-wife he still loves, is after him for a divorce settlement he can’t afford. Pursued by other creditors too, he fights to save himself from ruination, in constant dread of the consequences of failure.

But the more he tries to dig himself out of his hole, the more he gets buried. Defeat follows defeat, until finally, the story is resolved by a racing coup, cooked up with his mentor, the racehorse trainer, Birkett Coward. And this time, when it fails, it feels like a final, seemingly fatal, set-back. Unless, of course . . .