Dick Francis: To the Hilt (UK 2014)

From the Publisher:
Just after learning that his stepfather is gravely ill, artist Al Kinloch, returning to his remote home in the Scottish Highlands, is attacked by four men.

They ask one question - 'where is it?' - then leave him for dead...

Baffled and hurt, Al visits his stepfather and learns millions of pounds are missing and a valuable racehorse is under threat. Already roughed up, Al decides he has nothing to lose getting to the bottom of this.

Unfortunately, the thugs who beat him up and the person behind them will make sure that Al doesn't survive their next encounter

Dick Francis: To the Hilt. Penguin Books, ISBN: 9781405916844 (September, 2014), 341 p., £7.99.

Dick Francis: To the Hilt (USA 2004)

From the Publisher:
From the acclaimed master of mystery and suspense comes the story of a self-imposed outcast who must refresh his detection skills in order to save himself and his family.

Dick Francis: To the Hilt. Berkley Books, ISBN: 042519681X (June, 2004), 341 p., $6.99.

Dick Francis: To the Hilt (UK 1997)

From the Publisher:
Alexander Kinloch found solitude and a steady income painting in a bothy on a remote Scottish mountain. Until the morning the strangers arrived to rough him up, and Alexander was dragged reluctantly back into the real and violent world he thought he had left behind.

Millions of pounds are missing from his stepfather's business. A valuable racehorse is under threat. Then comes the first ugly death and the end of all Alexander's doubts. For the honour of the Kinlochs he will face the strangers... up to the hilt...

The new international bestseller from Dick Francis is a brilliantly executed tale of top racing, big money and crime.

Dick Francis: To the Hilt. Macmillan, ISBN: 0330352253 (November, 1997), 393 p., £15.99.

Dick Francis: To the Hilt (USA 1997)

From the Publisher:
New York Times bestselling author Dick Francis, "master of crime fiction and equine thrills" (New York Newsday), presents his latest and most engrossing novel. Black sheep of a prominent family, Alexander Kinloch is content to paint pictures and play the bagpipes in his ramshackle Scottish home. But the artist's life is interrupted by a savage, mysterious beating -- and a sudden call from his near-bankrupt family, asking for his help. Now Alexander is trying to keep several family treasures from harm -- including a steeplechaser called Golden Malt -- and feeling a desperate need to brush up his skills in the art of detection...

Dick Francis: To the Hilt. Jove Books, ISBN: 0515121487 (October, 1997), 341 p., $6.99.

Dick Francis: To the Hilt (UK 1996)

From the Publisher:
'I don't think my stepfather much minded dying. That he almost took me with him wasn't really his fault.'
Alexander Kinloch, artist, has worked out a good pattern for his life. His home is a small bothy on remote mountain in Scotland; he paints on commision, from which he derives both pleasure and a decent income; he lives alone and likes it.

One day, however, Alexander's peace is violently shattered when he returns home to find a group of strangers waiting for him. After a scuffle, he is left for dead with only the wind and the words "Where is it?' ringing in his ears. And the days that follow contain more danger than he could ever have imagined.

Once again Dick Francis proves that for sheer narrative pace and ingenuity of plot he is second to none.

Dick Francis: To the Hilt. Michael Joseph, ISBN: 071813754X (October, 1996), 281 p., £15.99.

Dick Francis: To the Hilt (USA 1996)

From the Publisher:
A tantalizing new novel from the elder statesman of crime fiction -- a tale as violent and wild as the wind off the Scottish Highlands.
"The master of equine thrills once again clears the jumps with panache... The race down the home stretch will have readers standing in their stirrups," proclaimed People magazine of last year's Come to Grief, Dick Francis's most recent Edgar Award-winning novel. And with To the Hilt, he takes us on his most fascinating and dangerous ride to date.

Alexander Kinloch is a true eccentric. The twenty-nine-year-old son of the (dead) fourth son of an earl, he lives in a broken-down house on a weatherbeaten Scottish mountainside, far from the affairs of the world and the noble relations who think him weird. The isolated solitude of a painter is the life he's chosen, and he emerges from his remote and quietly profitable artistic life only every two weeks, to secure provisions and pick up his mail.

Then one day Alexander receives a postcard from his mother, summoning him to London to the bedside of his dying stepfather. The news takes Alexander by surprise, but ensuing events unleash even greater shocks as threats and physical danger follow him to his very doorstep.

The realization that his stepfather is un-intentionally about to take Alexander with him to his grave is the shock of reality that draws the solitary painter out of the untamed wilderness and into the fearful -- and much more dangerous -- company of polite society.

In To the Hilt, Dick Francis executes the portrait of a hero caught by surprise, an unassuming man thrust into territory where the landscape is painted with blood. And there Alexander faces a dilemma: Just how far should one go in the defense of honor -- to the hilt?

Dick Francis: To the Hilt. Putnam's, ISBN: 0399141855 (October, 1996), 322 p., $24.95.