Friday Memes: Crossfire by Dick Francis and Felix Francis

Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Crossfire by Dick Francis and Felix Francis has been sitting on my TBR Mountain since March 1, 2011. Since Dick Francis died in 2010, this is the last collaboration with his son Felix. I was a long-time fan of Dick Francis' character-centered mysteries and always looked forward to his annual book. 
Here is the description of his last:

An exhilarating new novel from the New York Times-bestselling authors. 

Shell-shocked and missing a foot-lost to an IED during his tour of duty in Afghanistan-Captain Tom Forsyth has been sent "home" by the army and, at loose ends, returns to his estranged mother's house for the first time since he joined up at seventeen. But Josephine Kauri, the "first lady of British racing," has always put the horses she trains first and her family last. Tom soon finds himself strained to the breaking point with his mother and stepfather.

But there's another reason for the stifling tension at Kauri House Stables: Josephine is being blackmailed for a hefty sum every week-and forced to make her horses lose. Retirement is not an option, as she has been warned that it will result in the thing she most fears: exposure and ridicule . . . and prison, when the government finds out what she's been hiding.

Tom sets out to discover and defeat this hidden enemy using his finely honed military skills. But can he save his mother's reputation and career, or will he find himself caught in the cross fire?

Beginning:

"Medic! Medic!"

I could see that my platoon sergeant was shouting, but strangely, the sound of his voice seemed muffled, as if I was in a neighboring room rather than out here in the open.

Friday 56:

"Come on," she said again, laughing. "What have you got down there? It's a toy, isn't it? Part of your chat-up technique?" She danced away from me, looking down, searching for the source of the noise and laughing all the while.