Dicks is a cycle-racing fanatic, a former rider whose career ended abruptly at the Rome Olympics. His obsession for the sport and openness to events lead him effortlessly into complicated circumstances involving the firing of some vases – the work of Leonardo da Vinci – and a bizarre kidnap plot.

This absorbing mystery proves Frank Dickens to be a natural writer with a mastery of dialogue. The Italian and Sardinian backgrounds are strikingly well realized, while Dicks himself is an original and immensely appealing hero, swept along by a tide of events more fast-moving and dangerous than any cycle race.

‘[Dickens] has created an original and immensely appealing hero’ – Peter Owen