John Straker

Straker was the man who knew Silver Blaze better than anyone—his habits, his feed, his chances in the Wessex Cup—and his death turns a missing-horse case into something darker. He had debts, ambitions, and a position that made him both indispensable and vulnerable, and the circumstances of his end raise questions about loyalty, desperation, and what a man will do when his livelihood depends on a single animal. His fate is the hinge on which the mystery turns, and Holmes must read the trainer's life as carefully as he reads the turf.