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BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR

Bolt
Title: Bolt
Description:
Kit Fielding's patron, Princess Casilia, is in trouble. Her invalid husband, Roland de Brescou is being threatened by a business partner. And to enforce the threat, all the Princess's best runners are wantonly being destryed - shot by a bolt.
The Danger
Title: The Danger
Description:
Leaves his twenty-one racing demons standing. It is about kidnapping, not of a horse, but of an Italian lady jockey, a small English boy and the Senior Steward of the Jockey Club, one after the other...
In The Frame
Title: In The Frame
Description:
A successful painter of horses flies to Australia on the trail of a gang carrying on a fruitful business in the forged work of artists like Munnings and Stubbs, nt hesitating to kill if anyone gets in their way... when the gloves are off its' very gritty indeed
Comeback
Title: Comeback
Description:
Peter Darwin was hoping for some quiet leave from the Foreign Office. Instead he found himself in the village of his childhood - in the service of a vetinary surgeon whose operating theatre was rapidly acquiring an unwanted reputation as an abbatoir...
Straight
Title: Straight
Description:
Derek Franklin is an injured jockey. the last fence at Cheltenham has left him on crutches. But his brother's death means even bigger trouble. He inherits a jewellery business, a mistress - and some very shadowy business associates.
Slay-ride
Title: Slay-ride
Description:
David Cleveland is looking forward to Norway. A change of scenery, an old friend, and a straing-forward looking case. An english jockey has gone missing; and so have the racecourse takings. It all looks so simple until a dead body turns up... unannounced.
Smokescreen
Title: Smokescreen
Description:
Certainly his best thriller... sets the scene of devilry in South Africa, truely exciting
Enquiry
Title: Enquiry
Description:
All the elements that Dick Francis handles so superbly: horse-racing so vibrantly portrayed that it gallops from the pages... filled with suspence, high drama and the bristling hatred of revenge
For Kicks
Title: For Kicks
Description:
An absolute beauty... the detection is ingenious and detailed; he gimmick is a fine one; and the background of life among horses and trainers and stable lads (and criminals) is so real you can smell and feel it. As a thriller, For Kicks is a winner.
Proof
Title: Proof
Description:
A party at the home of a racehorse trainer becomes a bloody tragedy when a driverless horsebox plunges doewn a slope into a marquee full of guests...A gripping thriller.
Second Wind
Title: Second Wind
Description:
Dick Francis's legion of admirers can relax: his year off from writing is over and a new vigour has entered his style. Longtime readers will be happy to find the customary racetrack skulduggery, galvanised by some fascinating new elements. The very opening of Second Wind signals something new, with Francis's protagonist fighting for his life in a Caribbean storm at sea: "But now, as near dead as dammit, I tumbled like a rag-doll piece of flotsam in towering gale-driven seas that sucked unimaginable tons of water from the deeps …" In flashback, we are catapulted into the world of meteorologist Perry Stuart who agrees to fly through the eye of storm on Trox Island, a blighted place steeped in guano and harbouring a nasty secret. When the reader encounters details of the racing world in Francis's earlier thrillers, it had the satisfying ring of authenticity. The same is true in Second Wind, as Stuart's character was developed with the help of BBC weatherman John Kettley. Although a new venue for Francis, he still has the knack of quickening the readers' pulse with a few carefully chosen words: "Despair was too strong a word for it. Perhaps despondency was better. When they came for me, they came with guns." --Barry Forshaw
The Edge
Title: The Edge
Description:
Pan 1989
Blood Sport
Title: Blood Sport
Description:
"Rivals his last and excellent Flying Finish" The Literary Times Supplement
Wild Horses
Title: Wild Horses
Description:
Movie Director Thomas Lyon came to Newmarket to rake the ashes of an old jockey club scandal for a new Hollywood film. Too late, he found himself listening to a blacksmith's dying confession. Found himself violently watching as the past came back to life.

Capturing the shockwaves over one woman's macabre death thirty years before is drama. But a frenzied knife attack on the set of Unstable Times is definitely attempted murder. Who stood to gain from the threats? Between truth and shadowy fiction, Thomas Lyon already knew too much

10-lb Penalty
Title: 10-lb Penalty
Description:
One of the most impressive aspects of Dick Francis's long and celebrated career (he's won three Edgar Awards, the Silver Dagger, the Gold Dagger, a Cartier Diamond Dagger, and was named the 1996 Mystery Writers of America Grand Master) is the freshness that he brings to each of his novels. In 10 lb. Penalty Francis adds several new arrows to his quiver. His protagonist, Ben Juliard, narrates the tale in a vivid first person that begins in his insecure late teens instead of the settled middle age of the usual Francis hero. Also, Ben's relationship with horses is more of a fading dream than an active reality. The book begins with Ben's expulsion from Vivian Durridge's stables; he's removed with a false accusation of glue sniffing. But as Ben soon discovers, it is, in fact, his powerful father's machinations that are behind his ill fortunes. The elder Juliard is "standing for Parliament," and the bachelor candidate needs his son by his side for a year of campaigning if he hopes to win. Ben accedes to his father's wishes. He almost always has, but he soon finds that his "gap year"--his year before entering university--is going to be a nightmare. Orinda Nagle, the widow of the recently deceased Hoopwestern MP, and her companion, Alderney Wyvern, resist George's campaign from the start. Then, Usher Rudd, a scandal-mongering journalist, turns his vitriol to George. When an attempt is made on George's life, he and his son find themselves inside a vigorous tale of suspense that takes several narrative years to sort out. Francis's lucid prose is the driving force in this political mystery, and the realistic rendering of the complicated father-son relationship between George and Ben adds a sophistication and weight that marks the author's best fiction. --Patrick O'Kelley, Amazon.com
To The Hilt
Title: To The Hilt
Description:
Alexander Kinloch found solitude and a steady income in a bothy on a remote Scottish mountain. Then strangers arrived and he was dragged back to the real and violent world he thought he had left behind. For the honour of the Kinlochs he will face the strangers up to the hilt.
Hot Money (the Dick Francis Library)
Title: Hot Money (the Dick Francis Library)
Description:
Crime
Come To Grief
Title: Come To Grief
Description:
Crime
10 Lb. Penalty
Title: 10 Lb. Penalty
Description:
One of the most impressive aspects of Dick Francis's long and celebrated career (he's won three Edgar Awards, the Silver Dagger, the Gold Dagger, a Cartier Diamond Dagger, and was named the 1996 Mystery Writers of America Grand Master) is the freshness that he brings to each of his novels. In 10 lb. Penalty Francis adds several new arrows to his quiver. His protagonist, Ben Juliard, narrates the tale in a vivid first person that begins in his insecure late teens instead of the settled middle age of the usual Francis hero. Also, Ben's relationship with horses is more of a fading dream than an active reality. The book begins with Ben's expulsion from Vivian Durridge's stables; he's removed with a false accusation of glue sniffing. But as Ben soon discovers, it is, in fact, his powerful father's machinations that are behind his ill fortunes. The elder Juliard is "standing for Parliament," and the bachelor candidate needs his son by his side for a year of campaigning if he hopes to win. Ben accedes to his father's wishes. He almost always has, but he soon finds that his "gap year"--his year before entering university--is going to be a nightmare. Orinda Nagle, the widow of the recently deceased Hoopwestern MP, and her companion, Alderney Wyvern, resist George's campaign from the start. Then, Usher Rudd, a scandal-mongering journalist, turns his vitriol to George. When an attempt is made on George's life, he and his son find themselves inside a vigorous tale of suspense that takes several narrative years to sort out. Francis's lucid prose is the driving force in this political mystery, and the realistic rendering of the complicated father-son relationship between George and Ben adds a sophistication and weight that marks the author's best fiction. --Patrick O'Kelley, Amazon.com
Decider
Title: Decider
Description:
"Free choice? There is no such thing according to Lee Morris, architect, engineer, jobbing builder and entrepreneur....."
Risk
Title: Risk
Description:
"Roland Britten, thrity-one, bachelor, chartered accountant, spends his spare time riding ...."
Longshot
Title: Longshot
Description:
John Kendall's agent disapproves of hasty ventures. 'Impulse will kill you one of these days' he warns. John Kendall should have listened. ....
Bonecrack (heron Faux-leather Edition)
Title: Bonecrack (heron Faux-leather Edition)
Description:
Exciting story
Odds Against
Title: Odds Against
Description:
Exciting story
For Kicks: Flying Finish
Title: For Kicks: Flying Finish
Description:
For Kicks: - Daniel Roke, owner of a prosperous Australian stud farm, is hired to infiltrate English racing stables .... Flying Fish: - Henry Grey throws up his safe job with a bloodstock agency to become a travelling groom ....
Longshot
Title: Longshot
Description:
To John Kendall it seemed a good idea to throw in his job in order to write a novel. Ten months later it seems an equally good idea to write the biography of Tremayne Vickers, a National Hunt racehorse trainer. By the end of the commission he will need to summon up all his survival skills.
Reflex
Title: Reflex
Description:
People who ride racehorses love the speed, the excitement, the danger - and winning the race. Philip Nore has been riding for many years and he always wants to win - but sometimes he is told to lose. Why? And what is the mystery about the photographer, George Millace, who has just died in a car crash? Philip Nore knows the answer to the first question, and he wants to find out the answer to the second. But as he begins to learn George Millace's secrets, he realises that his own life is in danger.
Field Of Thirteen: Short Stories
Title: Field Of Thirteen: Short Stories
Description:
The 13 stories in this collection range from the National Hunt Festival at Cheltenham to Churchill Downs in America.
Readers Digest Condensed: Come To Grief , If I Only Had Wings , Snow Wolf , Wedding Night
Title: Readers Digest Condensed: Come To Grief , If I Only Had Wings , Snow Wolf , Wedding Night
Description:
Mystery and intrigue as jockey turned investigator follows clues; wartime idealism on a remote RAF station; action packed thriller as 2 CIA agents face danger in Soviet Russia; film star faces growing suspicion about her husband's past.
Forfeit
Title: Forfeit
Description:
Bert Checkov was a Fleet Street racing correspondent with a talent for tipping non-starters. But the advice he gave to James Tyrone a few minutes before he fell to his death, was of a completely different nature. James investigates, and soon finds his own life, and that of his wife, at risk.
Driving Force
Title: Driving Force
Description:
At 35, Freddie Craft has retired as a steeplechase jockey and now runs a fleet of motor horseboxes transporting runners from their stables to the races, or brood mares to the stud farms. When a hitch hiker is picked up and someone dies, Freddie is drawn into a complicated conspiracy.
Second Wind
Title: Second Wind
Description:
Dick Francis's legion of admirers can relax: his year off from writing is over and a new vigour has entered his style. Longtime readers will be happy to find the customary racetrack skulduggery, galvanised by some fascinating new elements. The very opening of Second Wind signals something new, with Francis's protagonist fighting for his life in a Caribbean storm at sea: "But now, as near dead as dammit, I tumbled like a rag-doll piece of flotsam in towering gale-driven seas that sucked unimaginable tons of water from the deeps …" In flashback, we are catapulted into the world of meteorologist Perry Stuart who agrees to fly through the eye of storm on Trox Island, a blighted place steeped in guano and harbouring a nasty secret. When the reader encounters details of the racing world in Francis's earlier thrillers, it had the satisfying ring of authenticity. The same is true in Second Wind, as Stuart's character was developed with the help of BBC weatherman John Kettley. Although a new venue for Francis, he still has the knack of quickening the readers' pulse with a few carefully chosen words: "Despair was too strong a word for it. Perhaps despondency was better. When they came for me, they came with guns." --Barry Forshaw
Break In (dick Francis Library)
Title: Break In (dick Francis Library)
Description:
Kit Fielding, champion steeplechaser, puts himself into a perilous situation when a smear campaign in the gutter press threatens to ruin his twin sister's life. She had married racehorse trainer Bobby Allardeck and the Allardecks and Fieldings have been in bitter deadlock for generations.
Dick Francis Omnibus Break In And Banker
Title: Dick Francis Omnibus Break In And Banker
Description:
Family ties mean trouble, chains and fatal obligations. And when steeplechase jockey Kit Fielding comes to the aid of his twin sister and her husband, Bobby Allardeck, even death threatens.
Sport Of Queens
Title: Sport Of Queens
Description:
nice and clean good protected dust jacket has a nice added card with a breif message from dick frances added
To The Hilt
Title: To The Hilt
Description:
Home for Alexander, an artist, is a small bothy on a remote mountain in Scotland. One day, his peace is shattered when he returns home to find some strangers waiting for him. After a scuffle, he is left for dead with only the wind and the words, "Where is it?" ringing in his ears.
Shattered
Title: Shattered
Description:
Gerard Logan finds that when his jockey friend dies following a fall at the Cheltenham races, he is involved in a desperate search for a stolen video tape which embroils him in more life-threatening hazards than does his work as a widely-acclaimed glass-blower. Excerpted from Shattered by Dick Francis. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved It was at the last fence of all that Tallahassee uncharacteristically tangled his feet. Easily ahead by seven lengths he lost his concentration, hit the roots of the unyielding birch and turned a somersault over his rider, landing his whole half-ton mass upside down with the saddle-tree and his withers crushing the rib cage of the man beneath.The horse fell at the peak of his forward-to-win acceleration and crashed down at thirty or more miles an hour. Winded, he lay across the jockey for inert moments, then rocked back and forwards vigorously in his struggle to rise again to his feet.The fall and its aftermath looked truly terrible from where I watched on the stands. The roar of welcome for a favourite racing home to a popular win was hushed to a gasp, to cries, to an endless anxious murmur. The actual winner passed the post without his due cheers and thousand pairs of binoculars focused on the unmoving black and white chevrons flat on the green December grass.The racecourse doctor, though instantly attending him from his following car, couldn't prevent the fast gathering group of paramedics and media people from realising that Martin Stukely, though still semi-conscious, was dying before their eyes. They glimpsed the blood sliding frothily out of the jockey's moth, choking him as the sharp ends of broken ribs tore his lungs apart. They described it, cough by groan, in their news reports.The doctor and paramedics loaded martin just alive into the waiting ambulance and as they set off to the hospital they worked desperately with transfusions and oxygen, but quietly, before the journey ended, the jockey lost his race.Priam, not normally a man of emotion, wept without shame as later he collected Martin's belongings, including his car keys, from the changing rooms. Sniffing, blowing his nose, and accompanied by Lloyd Baxter who looked annoyed rather than grief-stricken, Priam Jones offered to return me to my place of business in Broadway, though not to my home in the hills, as he intended to go in the opposite direction from there, to see Bon-Bon; to give her comfort.I asked if he would take me on with him to see Bon-Bon. He refused. Bon-Bon wanted Priam alone, he said. She had said so, devastated, on the telephone.Lloyd Baxter, Priam added, would now also be offloaded at Broadway. Priam had got him the last available room in the hotel there, the Wychwood Dragon. It was all arranged.Lloyd Baxter glowered at the world, at his trainer, at me, at fate. He should, he thought, have won the gold trophy. He had been robbed. Though is horse was unharmed, his feelings for his dead jockey seemed to be resentment, not regret.As Priam, shoulders drooping, and Baxter, frowning heavily, set off ahead of us towards the car park, martin's changing-room valet hurried after me, calling my name. I stopped, and turned towards him, and into my hands he thrust the lightweight racing saddle that, strapped firmly to Tallahassee's back, had helped to deal out damage and death.The stirrups, with the leathers, were folded over the saddle plate, and were kept in place by the long girth wound round and round. The sight of the girth-wrapped piece of professional equipment, like my newly dead mother's Hasselblad camera, bleakly rammed into one's consciousness the gritty message that their owners would never come back. It was Martin's empty saddle that set me missing him painfully.Eddie, the valet, was elderly, bald and, in Martin's estimation, hardworking and unable to do wrong. He turned to go back to the changing room but then stopped, fumbled in the deep front pocket of the apron of his trade and, producing a brown-paper-wrapped package, called after me to wait.'Someone gave this to Martin to give to you,' he shouted, coming back and holding it out for me to take. 'Martin asked me to give it back to him when he was leaving to go home, so he could pass it on to you ... but of course ...' he swallowed, his voice breaking ... 'he's gone.'I asked. 'Who gave it to him?'The valet didn't know. He was sure, though, that Martin himself had known, because he had been joking about it being worth a million, and Eddie was clear that the ultimate destination of the parcel had been Gerard Logan, Martin's friend.I took the package and, thanking him, put it into my raincoat pocket, and we spent a mutual moment of sharp sadness for the gap we already felt in our lives. I supposed, as Eddie turned to hurry back to his chores in the changing room and I continued into the car park, that I might have gone to the races for the last time, that without Martin's input the fun might have flown.Piram's tears welled up again at the significance of the empty saddle and Lloyd Baxter shook his head with disapproval. Priam recovered enough however to start Martins' car and drive it to Broadway where, as he'd intended, he off-loaded both me and Lloyd Baxter outside the Wychwood Dragon and then departed in speechless gloom towards Bon-Bon and her fatherless brood.Lloyd Baxter paid me not attention but strode without pleasure into the hotel. During the journey from the racecourse he'd complained to Priam that his overnight bag was in Priam's house. He'd gone by hired car from Staverton airfield, intending to spend the evening at Priam's now-cancelled New Year's Eve party, celebrating a win in the Gold Coffee Cup before flying away the following morning to his thousand-acre estate in Northumberland. Priam's assertion that, after seeing Martin's family, he would himself ferry the bag to the hotel, left Tallahassee's owner unmollified. The whole afternoon had been a disaster, he grumbled, and in his voice one could hear undertones of an intention to change to a different trainer.
Odds Against
Title: Odds Against
Description:
Sid Halley, an injured jockey, becomes a private eye and carries out some work for his father-in-law, who believes a man is trying to financially ruin Seabury racecourse, so that it can be sold to property developers. From the author of "Straight" and "The Edge".

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