Rampant (novel)

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Zügellos is a crime novel by the English writer and former successful jockey Dick Francis (original title: Wild Horses ), which was published in 1994 and published in a German translation from English by Malte Krutzsch in Diogenes Verlag , Zurich, 1996 . As with Francis' usual crime novels, the plot is related to horse racing and, thanks to the research of his wife Mary Francis, has a special reference point: in this case the world of film.

action

Thomas Lyon, a young British director , has the privilege of directing a Hollywood production based on an English bestselling novel for the first time . It tells a speculative crime story loosely based on a mysterious death of a young woman in the turf scene several decades ago.

In the beginning, however, Thomas Lyon is called to the residence of his former mentor Valentine Clark, a former farrier and horse trainer, who is also associated with equestrian sports and who is dying, terminally ill. On his deathbed, the latter mistook Lyon for a father and confessed to him in unclear words about a murder of whatever kind against the boy from Cornwall , for which he himself did not want to answer and for which he “destroyed their youth, although they did not know it. “Since the shooting is waiting for Lyon, he cannot take care of it at first.

For he has considerable problems with the author of the literary work, Howard Tyler, who, contrary to his contractual obligation in the further development of the script would not help, fearing for his original and the other demands of the actual underlying events regarding boycotts . Lyon, on the other hand, does not want vague dream sequences in which one can speculate about possible motives for murder or suicide, but rather more tangible facts. However, the writer goes so far as to spread rumors that even the actual star of the film, Nash Rourke, allegedly made negative comments about it. Lyon would both disregard the original book and ruin the film. Since Rourke stands in front of Lyon and O'Hara, the film producer, also stands by Lyon, the first unrest around the film seems to be over. But Tyler had echoed the indiscretions to gossip columnist Alison Visborough, who, due to her family's personal involvement through her brother Roddy Visborough, demanded that filming be stopped immediately.

Lyons mistrust is aroused due to these blackmail attempts and therefore tries to fathom the origins of the story. Sonya Wells, the young wife of politically ambitious coaching legend Jackson Wells, hanged herself in a barn near Newmarket without leaving a suicide note. Her husband then withdrew his candidacy for the British House of Commons and increasingly withdrew from racing himself. Apparently the writer had based his novel on a thin obituary in the equestrian magazine Jockey Club . While Thomas Lyon tries to reach the contemporary witnesses of the time, attacks on his film production and those (directly) involved are increasing.

A masked rider allegedly attacks the star Nash Rourke during the shooting, but only injures his stunt double Ivan with a knife due to a lack of overview , Dorothea Pannier, the sister of the mentor, who has since died, is brutally attacked and almost killed. Only the hurrying of her son Paul Pannier can save her. In particular, the property of her brother who lives with her seems to have been ransacked. Lyon concludes that the perpetrator or perpetrators either wanted to steal something valuable or revealing material. Because in the legacy of the former farrier and horse specialist there was also a detailed racing archive, which Paul Pannier in particular had his eye on in order to keep it in the family's possession. But according to the will, it was intended for Thomas Lyon, who was already able to store parts of it in a safe place.

When Paul Pannier is finally stabbed to death and a murder attempt with a knife is attempted on Lyon himself during a day of racing, which only goes smoothly with a flesh wound in the hip thanks to a protective vest, the Hollywood executives at the film studio want to pull him away from the project, but again Nash Rourke sticks to him and thanks to the help of Lucy Wells, Jackson Wells' daughter from the second marriage, he can find important details in the archive, such as an informative group portrait and a handwritten note from Clark in an encyclopedia. In addition, the weapon specialist Professor Derry, who was friends with the late Valentine Clark, gave him important information on the basis of the rare knife that was found, which served as a murder weapon.

The group portrait with the revealing handwritten note “The Gang” showed a group of young men and a woman. With the help of contemporary witnesses, Lyon can decipher the probable course of events: In the Swinging Sixties , under the influence of Valentine Clark, a group of young equestrian enthusiasts found each other who flatly shared everything - even their sexual experiences. Valentine, of all people, had introduced the young jockey Pig to the sexual variety of paraphilia , which he "tried" one night at Sonya Wells' and unintentionally strangled her. The group around Roddy Visborough, Paul Pannier, Pig, and Ridley Wells, Sonya's brother-in-law, hushed up the crime as suicide and successfully deceived the police. During the crime, Jackson Wells himself was in York and only found out weeks later, because one day Ridley Wells "puked" while drunk and confessed to him. As a result, Jackson nearly killed his brother by beating him into unconsciousness. He then went to Jackson to Valentine Clark for advice. But Clark had already come up with the solution based on a confession by his nephew Paul, he himself killed Jackson's Pig with a knife spear forged by himself and had the corpse disappear into a filled well. To hide this, he had spread the rumor that the young jockey from Cornwall was going to try his luck in Australia . This was the deed he wanted to confess to Lyons on his deathbed. He had advised Jackson and the others, however, that they should all live with the crime or go to the police. However, they all decided that this should not come to light under any circumstances, because Roddy Visborough as Sonya's brother should also be kept free from the scandal. But as Jackson Wells himself puts it, "everything went up in the rain", the lives of those involved changed because the friendship broke up and their success at work waned.

The former companions had been startled by the filming and the research. The attack on Mrs. Pannier was carried out by Roddy Visborough, which was only kept from worse by the intervention of Paul Pannier. But because of that he had to die in turn. Lyon sets a first trap for Ridley Wells by hiring him as a stunt rider and identifying him to the audience as the mysterious rider who wanted to carry out the attack on Nash. The leader of the old gang, Roddy Visborough, who is behind the other murders, is ultimately exposed when he tries to steal the supposed final evidence, i.e. the said photo, from the producer's safe , while the director catches him, brings him down and the police arrest Roddy Visborough can.

Once the case has been clarified, there seems to be no more obstacles in the way of a revised version of the script and the subsequent shooting, while Nash and Lyon expressly do without knives and daggers in any further joint film project.

expenditure

  • Rampant. Translation from English by Malte Krutzsch, Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-257-06101-3 .

Adaptation

radio play

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.hoernews.de/Einzeltitel/francis_zuegellos.html