Review of Rank Outsiders by Charlie de Luca

I was looking through my kindle and came upon this book (which is only available as an e-book on amazon) which I read last year. I thought it deserved a review and even better, only cost 99p.

This is a very enjoyable read, along the lines of Dick Francis in that it features racing, jockeys and general skulduggery. What makes this book a bit different is that it is written from two viewpoints, that of a male jockey and a woman social worker. These characters, Tristan and Poppy are thrown together when a young lad, Kyle, who works at a racing yard, is accused of nobbling one of the horses in his care.

What follows is an ingenious plot, with a great mix of people when the two different worlds of horse racing and social services collide. In fact the two leads join forces to solve  a very knotty problem. Throw in some girls who regularly go missing from care and the tension escalates into a satisfying read which will appeal to many.

Charlie de Luca is an interesting new author who I recently met. I hope to persuade him to do a guest interview for this blog later on in the year. I know he’s busy writing further titles but lets hope he has a window in his diary soon. *****