This was OK and easy to read but I much preferred "The Other Hand". No-one in my reading group was a fan. People who have this kind of mentality just puzzle me, so I was never going to like them much. And that end - someone call the NSPCC!! ( )

Masterfully manipulative. ( )

DNF - did not care. Unfortunate because I loved Little Bee.

This did not hold my interest. I really can't care much about who cycles a bit faster. The sick girl seemed to be off at a tangent from the rest of the book. Did not finish. ( )

Zoe and Kate are cyclist at the very top of their game, with almost nothing to choose between them in their chosen discipline of the sprint. They have been rivals and friends ever since they were on the elite training scheme together.

Kate is married to Jack, another British cycling star who has been a gold medal holder in the past. With Kate they have a daughter Sophie, who is a Star Wars nut, but she is tragically suffering from Leukaemia. Kate and jack are flat out with her care and training and the strain is beginning to tell.

All three of these athletes have a complex personal relationship with each other. Jack is physically and mentally strong, Kate is a top performing cyclist who has missed medal opportunities because of Sophie's health, and Zoe is strong and uses psychological intimidation on her rivals to beat them before turning a pedal.

With the rule changes from the IOC it means that only Zoe or Kate can be selected for the Olympic sprint. As Sophie's health deteriorates, the personal pressure builds and the tension between them increases to almost breaking point in the race off they have to hold.

Cleave has written a completely believable story based around three athletes in the velodrome. He has managed to capture the thrills, tactics and brutal speed that the sprint competition has. The complicated relationships between the thee characters means that the plot has the same slow moments of a race, along with awesome speed at certain points. Parts of the story are where he looks back at past events in the characters lives, filling in the detail for the narrative that is unfolding. It is very nicely done, as these sometime don't work well.

Overall all it reads like the sprint race that the book is centred around; slow at times, moments of tension, and a truly breathing finale.

( )