Dead Cert ★★★

Alan York's Lotus Elite?

1962 Lotus Elite

‘Mr Alan York, sir, was scheduled to drive along this road on his way from Kempton Park to the Cotswolds at approximately five fifteen p.m. on Saturday, February 27th, in a dark blue Lotus Elite, licence number KAB 890. I must thank you, sir, for making it easy for me to intercept you. You could go a month on the road without seeing another car like yours. I’d have had a job flagging you down if you’d been driving, say, a Ford or an Austin.’

In the 1974 movie, Judi Dench played Mrs. Davidson and Scott Antony played Alan York. Tony Richardson directed.

“Admiral met the fence perfectly. He rose to it as if flight were not only for birds.

And he fell.”

Alan York’s friend, Major Bill Davidson, was riding Admiral; he was taken to hospital in serious condition and died in hospital that evening.

After the race, York returned to the fence where Admiral fell. He found a coil of wire lying beside the fence post. He found marks on the posts, two feet above the fence, where the wire had been attached.

That made it murder.

York discovered that a fleet of radio-equipped taxis from Brighton were involved, not only in fixing races, but also in a protection racket.

But who was behind the ‘Marconicars’?


Alan York, 24, is single, from Southern Rhodesia. Besides being an amateur steeplechase jockey who owns his own horses, York is his father’s representative at his trading company’s London office.

“My son is Sherlock Holmes reincarnated, didn’t you know?” he said. “After he went to England I had to employ a detective to do the work he used to do in connexion with frauds and swindles.”

Alan York's
Lotus Elite?

1960 Lotus Elite