The two hugely competitive and high-stakes worlds of Thoroughbred horseracing and fine art come together in my new crime thriller, THE CHASE.
My research included visits to galleries, both private and public, attendance at auctions (no bids from me!) and numerous discussions with art dealers and auctioneers. In my acknowledgements, I thank those artists, both living and dead, who made my year so rewarding and informative.
I also researched art forgers, in particular Tom Keating. Fed up that his own work was not receiving the recognition he believed it deserved, Keating copied the styles of the old masters, flooding the London market with fakes and fooling many in the art world during the nineteen fifties, sixties and seventies. Some of his paintings are probably still believed to be originals.
In the book, Fabian Tulley is the elder son of a former champion jockey turned successful racehorse trainer, but he has left the family business behind to become an art dealer, running his own gallery in St James’s, London.
He is a self-confessed workaholic, who loves nothing more than making a deal, but he wasn’t always so industrious, squandering his time at art school and failing to secure the qualifications needed to join one of the prestigious London auction houses. Hence, he set up on his own, first selling sporting prints before concentrating on original works, gradually gaining a loyal clientele who followed him to his new premises in the heart of the vibrant London art scene.
Fabian is a complex character.
Married aged 22, divorced at 24, he has now lived alone for a quarter of a century with the knowledge that he can never be a father. As the offspring of a horseracing dynasty, he wonders if his life is wasted simply because he lacks the ability to pass on his genes to the next generation.
Hence he tends to treat the artworks that pass through his gallery as his children, and he is desperate to find them new homes where they will be loved and cherished. But he is accused of selling a forged painting as one by Sir Alfred Munnings. Things then go from bad to worse as some of his stock is vandalised, his mailing list is hacked, and he is physically attacked in the carpark at Cheltenham racecourse.
Someone, it seems, is trying to destroy both him and his art-dealing business, but Fabian is determined to discover who, and why.
It becomes the fight of his life – or his death?
‘The Chase’ by Felix Francis is published by Zaffre Books
