Novels

Nerve
"Such individuals could be understood. Understood and treated and forgiven. Forgiveness, I thought, that was something else again. It would take a long time to forgive."

Date of Publication: 1964

Publisher: Pocket Books (paperback)

Foreign Titles: Die letzte Hürde (or Rufmord) German

Setting: The racing community and London

Synopsis:
Rob Finn is a rising young jockey. He is on a winning streak with a great stable and his future looks bright. Until a routine fall apparently robs him of his nerve, and he loses 28 races in a row. Rob knows he has not lost his nerve, and in thinking about certain other jockeys' bad luck, he pieces together a terrible plot carried out by a twisted man to undermime all successful jockeys. Rob, the unmusical son of a family of famous musicians, is able to realize Maurice Kemp-Lore is in a similar position, being a non-horseman in a racing family. Rob manages to foil the villain's plot to drug all Rob's horses, but the villain takes revenge. It is then in Rob's court to stop the villain permanently.

Main Characters:
Rob Finn
Joanna Finn
Maurice Kemp-Lore
Tick-Tock Ingersoll

Professions:
Rob Finn is a jockey.
Maurice Kemp-Lore is a sportscaster.
Joanna Finn is a singer.

Comes after: Dead Cert

Villain and Motives:
Click here to reveal the villain!

Quotes:
She shut her door. I swore violently, aloud. It wasn't much relief. I looked up at the sky. The stars went on whizzing round in their courses, uncaring and cold.

Poor things, I thought rather too complacently, they were not stable enough to deal with whatever had undermimed them: and I remembered that easy pity, later on.

"I brought you here because of every other jockey you have hit where it hurts. In various ways you saw to it that they lost their jobs; so now you are going to lose yours."

Quiz:
highlight the area beneath the question to discover the answer
1. Why does Joanna resist Rob?
because they're cousins and she thinks it's incest

2. What do Jo and Rob hang in the "house"?
a painting of daffodils

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Related Links:
Putnam's Nerve
Asthmaline

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