Iced is the latest Felix Francis novel set in the world of horse racing, and it takes an unconventional turn, with current events alternating with a slowly-unfolding backstory describing the jockey protagonist's evolving mental health and substance abuse problems. The individual chapters are filled with local-level suspense—will our hero, Miles Pussett, win his horse/skeleton sledding race? Will he make weight? Will he overcome a panic attack? These episodes are effective and well-done, as we’ve come to expect from Felix Francis. The more large-scale, book-level suspense is somewhat undermined by all the momentum-breaking jumps back and forth between past and present. More seriously, almost halfway through the book, after many excellent horse-race descriptions in the finest Francis family tradition, I found myself wondering what we were all doing here. Miles encounters various shenanigans and ethics violations while narrating a memoir alternately with his current Cresta ice-sliding adventures, but I was still wondering whether there would ever be an actual crime for our protagonist to investigate. Eventually, Miles does right some wrongs, but that feels largely peripheral.
Miles describes his coming of age and development as a jockey, following in his famous jockey father’s footsteps. Everywhere he goes, his deceased father's towering reputation figures into people’s responses to and assumptions (both good and bad) about him, and he wrestles with the everpresent comparisons. The author, son of the legendary jockey/mystery writer Dick Francis, obviously knows more than a little about the weight of such expectations (Felix, are you OK??), and his descriptions of Miles's increasing mental health struggles form sort of a slow-motion thriller of their own. You will enjoy the book more if you approach it as a "regular" novel without expecting a conventional mystery/thriller. Side benefit: expect to be motivated to google up on Cresta racing. I knew nothing about it before reading this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a digital advance review copy.

An ex-jockey who suffers from mental disorders gets his need for speed by tobogganing down a difficult amateur slide in Switzerland. It's the same town where a winter horse race on ice happens. He's coerced into helping his old employer with the horses, but all is not what it seems.

By telling Miles' dual story of his life as a jockey and the unfolding events in Switzerland, will he be able to both solve the crime and his own problems? Francis tells a winning and page-turning story that kept me guessing.

Wow this was certainly a book that I could not put down. The pages were flying at such a speed I had finger cramps but it was worth it. I have read many Dick Francis books in my life and loved them. I think this is the first Felix Francis I have read and it's on a whole different level. This book was absolutely perfect. Packed so full with exciting tension and atmosphere. The story-line was so thrilling, fresh, realistic, believable and exciting. I am not definitely going to have to binge read all of his books. This is a wonderful book for thriller fans, epic for those who love horses in there books. Epic for those who love horse racing fiction it really is a must read for racing fans like me. The writing style is just so wonderful and thrilling that I'm sure like me you will be engrossed in minutes. The pace of this book is so fantastic in places you could get whiplash. The characters are so easy to love or love to hate and so characters expected to be quite shocked about. This kept me on my toes. I really can't recommend this book enough. 

Only the highest of praise goes out to the author and publishers for creating such a perfect horse racing novel. That I became so involved with it played like a movie in my head. This book is totally in contention for my book of the year award.

The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog today https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/iced-by-felix-francis-crooked-lane-books-5-stars either under my name or ladyreading365

Thank you to the author, Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In years past, I was a huge Dick Francis fan - and yet I never realized that Felix Francis has carried on writing in a similar vein. On the one hand, this was absolutely comfort food in book form for me, and deeply familiar - on the other hand it was completely different. The writing flows well, the time jumps back and forth work, and the main character is well-grounded. There was not a lot of suspense or drama, but more of an emotional back story - still set in the horse-racing world, and told with empathy and feeling. Well written, and leading me to seek out more of the author's work.

Iced is a self contained mystery thriller in the style of Dick Francis and ghost written by his son Felix Francis. Due out 12th July 2022 from Crooked Lane Books, it's 326 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback due out 1st quarter 2023. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

The book is engaging and readable with an action driven plot told in parallel first person PoV through flashbacks and the current day, timelines which converge in St. Mortiz with protagonist Miles drawn back into the equestrian world he had walked away from years earlier.

The characterizations are very well rendered, with believable three dimensional characters and dialogue which is never clunky or overwrought. The descriptions of the very disparate sports of tobogganing and horse racing on the flat ice, are well written and rich in small details. The climax, denouement, and resolution were well written and satisfying.

For fans of la famille Francis, this is a solid addition to the artists' oeuvre. It's full of beautiful scenery, set in the middle of the winter and would make a nice read for beating the heat. The language and some of the action is a bit rough and gritty, so it's not a completely innocent cozy read. There is some potentially triggering content in the form of frank discussions of eating disorders, mental health, athlete exploitation, etc.

Three and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I enjoyed the book. It was different to what I was expecting. Good plot. Good mix of characters. The book was well written. Nicely done.

This latest by Felix Francis was an intriguing story about a man named Miles Pussett. It contains a number of flashbacks that talk about his past and the things that made him the man he is now.

Miles is the son of a famous jockey and had always wanted to follow in his famous father's footsteps. But his father died in a road accident with Miles was twelve leaving his family is some financial dire straits. His mother dies by suicide some five years later. Miles feels a lot of guilt about both events. He was with his father when he died and believes that his father took the brunt of the crash in order to save his son. He feels that he could have saved his mother if he had been paying better attention but conflicts about his future plans had them estranged at the time of her death.

These two events damage Miles's mental health. It doesn't help that, as a jockey, he faces a lot of other stresses ranging from the obsessive need to lose weight to remain eligible to race and the pressure put on him to win races and the public's written and spoken pressure when he doesn't win.

These various pressures lead to nightmares, panic attacks, and an overuse of alcohol as an anesthetic. He is lucky to find support from the young nurse trainee he meets when a panic attack leads to hospitalization and from the Sabrina Dickinson who is the wife of his employer racehorse trainer Jerry Dickinson.

When the story begins, Miles is in St. Moritz taking part in the Cresta run. He's abandoned the entire horseracing industry to preserve his mental health but the speed and danger of racing down an icy course at high speed fills his need for adventure. But St. Moritz is also the site of winter horseracing on ice and Jerry Dickinson is there with a couple of his horses. Miles gets pulled in to help when Dickinson's usual groom breaks an ankle and finds himself pulled into danger again.

This story was a thriller. Someone does try to murder Miles by dropping a bag of cement onto the Cresta course which could have killed Miles when his sled hit it. He was lucky to escape with a dislocated shoulder and broken collar bone.

As Miles investigates who might have wanted him dead, he learns some things about his past that explain some things. I didn't feel that the mystery aspect of this story was the strongest part. For me, the crux of the story was about Miles's regaining his mental health and the changes he makes to build a happy life.

This is very much for fans of Dick and Felix Francis albeit with less of a mystery and more of a back story, It's the tale of Miles Pusset, who has become more than a tad disillusioned about the world of horses. He's roped into helping out with an ice horse race in Switzerland which brings up old memories. And then there's a murder. This moves back and forth in time between Miles' evolution as a jockey (some interesting stuff) and the present day. It's not too complicated and some of it is just plain old fashioned (a few howlers). Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Not a bad read for travel or relaxing on the porch.

I struggled with this book. I picked it up on Netgalley as I’ve read books by Felix Francis on and off over the years (have read all of his fathers). This is quite different, not bad just not the usual ‘formula’…which is something I look forward to when I read some books to escape life.
Running in two time lines of the life of Miles Pussett an ex jockey, I found it hard to keep track of which storyline we were in. It deals with real life issues as PSTD, Alcoholism, weight issues as a jockey. All this I found fascinating but I could see the train wreak coming.
Suffice to say there was a mystery there but for me it was taken over with the ‘real life’ issues.
An okay story that took a long time to get into and to get going.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read

I was given a review copy of this book, an e-arc, in return for my honest review. Thank you #CrookedLaneBooks #NetGalley #Iced

Miles Pussett is in Switzerland, riding down a private luge track to get the adrenaline rush he once got from horse racing, and after that, from drinking. He thinks he has left the world of horse racing far behind, but he has not reckoned with the likelihood of running into old friends in town for the special race held on the ice every year. He gets invited to a party, and then is asked to help with one of the horses -- and reluctantly finds himself back in the world he fled from, never imagining what he will learn, or that it will put his life at risk in a whole different way from tobogganing.

The story has a lot of backstory, and it's a little slow moving for a thriller, but it is a compelling story, and I kept reading. The mystery itself has a few unusual twists and turns. I would recommend it to fans of the series.

A bit of a departure from a traditional Francis horse-thriller…

Felix Francis has done a very nice job continuing his father’s horse-themed mysteries, and if you only read the blurb on its webpage, Iced seems to be just another one of these. Iced is actually a bit more than that, though, as it bounces back and forth between two storylines: a retrospective look at protagonist Miles Pussett’s difficult early life and mental health battles, and today’s story, with a now sober Pussett cautiously, and somewhat unwillingly, dipping his toes back into horse racing after a long hiatus.

Since this is a Felix Francis book, there is, of course, some horse-related skullduggery to figure out. Which Pussett eventually does. But the backstory of his early life - how he struggled with depression, hit bottom, was helped by some friends and medical professionals, and eventually seems to be figuring things out - is perhaps the more compelling half of the book. Readers who are only looking for a traditional Francis horse-thriller may be a bit disappointed, but those who are willing to appreciate something a little different will be quite happy with Iced.

On a personal note, one minor issue for me was that I had a little bit of trouble sometimes keeping track of the shifts from past to present and back. So perhaps Francis could have been a little clearer somehow on those. (I’m not quite sure how, but then I’m not an author!) On the other hand, this was balanced by my pleasure in learning more about the sport of toboggan racing, and also about horse racing on the ice, which, prior to this, I had no idea existed. Finally, please keep in mind that I try to fight “star-flation” a little bit, so I don’t give many five-star reviews and four-stars from me is a solid “read this book” recommendation. And my thanks to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the advance review copy.

The story about a jockey who turns towards the luge after becoming an alcoholic is an interesting setup for this novel, which takes us inside the horse racing world of England. The jockey has a dad who begun his career in horses and his formative years haven't been kind to him. Along the way he discovers some basic truths about his character and ethical fiber and that he can find love and happiness in a sober world. The characters are well drawn and the situations realistic and compelling, and even if you aren't a racing enthusiast, you will find this novel fascinating and a great read until the end.

Iced didn’t quite live up to my expectations of a mystery. However, I did gain insight into mental health issues, discovered a new sport, and enjoyed the plot. Felix used an interesting technique to show how the character’s past affected his present by weaving two stories together, one, now and the other seven years earlier. However, as I read, I didn’t always switch from past to present, or vice versa, when I should have and felt confused. In addition, the protagonist, Miles Pussett, came off a little whiny, and I had little sympathy for him.
On the other hand, I didn’t put the book down. And I found I was interested in how Pussett, a jockey, ended up in St. Moritz riding the ice. Surprisingly, I enjoyed this book.

Miles Pusset, former steeplechase jockey, spends his summers on the Isle of Whyte renting beach chairs and his winters hurtling headfirst down the icy track of the Cresta Run in St Moritz. Miles is lured back into the horse racing world when he helps out with the horses for a former employer in the glitzy White Turf race on the frozen lake. Discovering something suspicious gives Miles a mystery to solve. But this novel deals more with the man than the mystery. We delve into Miles’ past traumas and catch a glimpse into adrenaline fuelled life of a jockey and the pressure he faces trying to fill the shoes of his famous father. A big fan of Dick Francis, this was my first time reading a Felix Francis novel and I was impressed. Not a knuckle biting mystery but insightful and enjoyable nonetheless. Highly recommend.

This was interesting, but not what I expected. The mystery takes a backseat here. A former jockey is tangentially roped back into that world to help out and becomes suspicious when a favored horse doesn't win a race and his friend is attacked. But his investigation into these events fades into the background. The story is more about the mental health of the main character and alternates between his past as a jockey and his present day circumstances, dealing with PTSD, survivor's guilt after his dad died a car crash they were in together, alcoholism, weight issues, etc.

Miles Pussett is a jump jockey, trying to live up to his dad's sterling reputation. But the more he tries, the worse he gets, until he gives in to drink and begins to have panic attacks. This leads him to help in the form of two women. We also hear Miles' present story, where he's a daredevil on the skeleton in St. Moritz.

The first few chapters were difficult to get through, with references of doom to come. But once the worst has happened to Miles, the story became very enjoyable and exciting. I enjoyed it very much and look forward to reading more from Felix Francis.

Many thanks for an advance copy from NetGalley.

Felix Francis' latest Iced is just terrific. As he tiptoes and then strides into the field of mental illness, he still manages to keep the character of Miles strong and relatable. This was definitely the type of book you had to read in one or 2 sittings.

I always have to get past expecting the father when I know I have chosen the son but once I do, I find Felix Frances to be an excellent author of more introspective books and Ice falls much further into that category than his earlier books. In Iced, Mr. Felix takes us on a journey from want-to-be jockey Miles Pullset to recovering alcoholic and still speed hungry sledder. Since I am used to major action from the beginning, this tale felt slow at first, but I was pulled into the life of the character. I am not a fan of flashbacks, but I understand their use and there is a major purpose in these. I still didn't enjoy the jumpiness especially of the early transitions when I was trying to connect with Miles, but I knew Mr. Francis had a reason for the way he balanced them, and they did, in fact lead to our eventual understanding of how Miles ended up where he did emotionally. I did connect with him long before the mystery started to become obvious. I can't say I loved the book, but I can say it was well worth the read and worth a strong recommendation. Fans of the father will not be disappointed in the son.
My thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for allowing me to read and review a copy of Iced.
#NetGalley #SimonandSchuster #FelixFrancis #Iced

A great book by Felix Francis covering the world of horse racing and the Cresta Run. A very interesting read with great characters and it turned out to be a real page turner, I found myself reading late into the night wanting to know what happened next. It fully deserves five stars and yes I would definitely recommend it.

Adding Dick Francis’s name to the cover may draw more readers, but it’s not necessary as the author has established himself, and this story continues the upward trajectory. An excellent, if conflicted, protagonist finds himself in a bit of trouble when he is re-acquainted with the horse racing crowd after leaving it for years. Well written plot and characters.