Dick Francis Books In Order

Sid Halley Books In Publication Order

  1. Odds Against (1965)
  2. Whip Hand (1979)
  3. Come to Grief (1995)
  4. Under Orders (2006)
  5. Refusal (2013)

Kit Fielding Books In Publication Order

  1. Break In (1985)
  2. Bolt (1986)

Jeff Hinkley Books In Publication Order

  1. Triple Crown (By:Felix Francis) (2016)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Dead Cert (1962)
  2. Nerve (1964)
  3. For Kicks (1965)
  4. Flying Finish (1966)
  5. Blood Sport (1967)
  6. Forfeit (1968)
  7. Enquiry (1969)
  8. Rat Race (1970)
  9. Bonecrack (1971)
  10. Smokescreen (1972)
  11. Slay Ride (1973)
  12. Knockdown (1974)
  13. High Stakes (1975)
  14. In the Frame (1976)
  15. Risk (1977)
  16. Trial Run (1978)
  17. Reflex (1980)
  18. Twice Shy (1981)
  19. Banker (1982)
  20. The Danger (1983)
  21. Proof (1984)
  22. Hot Money (1987)
  23. The Edge (1988)
  24. Straight (1989)
  25. Longshot (1990)
  26. Comeback (1991)
  27. Driving Force (1992)
  28. Decider (1993)
  29. Wild Horses (1994)
  30. To the Hilt (1996)
  31. 10 lb. Penalty (1997)
  32. Second Wind (1999)
  33. Shattered (2000)
  34. Dead Heat (With: Felix Francis) (2007)
  35. Silks (With: Felix Francis) (2008)
  36. Even Money (With: Felix Francis) (2009)
  37. Crossfire (With: Felix Francis) (2010)
  38. Gamble (By:Felix Francis) (2011)
  39. Pulse (By:Felix Francis) (2017)

Short Story Collections In Publication Order

  1. Field of Thirteen (1998)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. The Sport of Queens: The Autobiography of Dick Francis (1957)
  2. The Racing Man’s Bedside Book (1969)
  3. A Jockey’s Life: The Biography of Lester Piggot / Lester (1986)

Dick Francis Books In Publication Order

  1. Gamble (By:Felix Francis) (2011)
  2. Bloodline (By:Felix Francis) (2012)
  3. Refusal (By:Felix Francis) (2013)
  4. Pulse (By:Felix Francis) (2017)
  5. Crisis (By:Felix Francis) (2018)
  6. Guilty Not Guilty (By:Felix Francis) (2019)
  7. Iced (By:Felix Francis) (2021)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. Great Stories of Mystery and Suspense (1981)
  2. 1st Culprit (1992)

Sid Halley Book Covers

Kit Fielding Book Covers

Jeff Hinkley Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Short Story Collections Book Covers

Non-Fiction Book Covers

Dick Francis Book Covers

Anthologies Book Covers

Dick Francis Books Overview

Odds Against

A hard fall took hotshot jockey Sid Halley out of the horse racing game, leaving him with a crippled hand, a broken heart, and the desperate need for a new job. Now he’s landed a position with a detective agency, only to catch a bullet from some penny ante thug. And things are about to get even more hectic the agency is giving him a case to handle on his own. The case brings him to the door of Zanna Martin, a woman who might be just what Sid needs to get him back up and running. But he’s up against a field of thoroughbred criminals, and the Odds Against him are making it a long shot that he’ll even survive…

Whip Hand

This ‘convincing and memorable’mystery is ‘among Dick Francis’s best,’ says the Cincinnati Post. And we’re sure readers will agree. Ex jockey and private investigator Sid Halley is approached by the wife of an elite racehorse trainer, begging his help in figuring out why her husband’s most promising horses have been performing so poorly. At first Halley thinks she’s overreacting and the losing streak is just dumb luck. But now he’s beginning to think it’s something far more dangerous…
A New York Times bestselling author whose reputation is virtually unmatched among modern mystery writersAnother ‘first class’ thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Field Of Thirteen. Baltimore Sun

Come to Grief

Come to Grief 94660 8Cassettes/10. 75 hours. Copyright 1995 Dick Francis. P 1996 Recorded Books. Unabridged. Narrated by Simon Prebble. Cover art by Dan Sweetman. Recorded by arrangement with Simon & Schuster Audio, Inc. Produced in the studios of Recorded Books Productions, Inc., New York. ISBN 0 7887 0467 2. ‘In Come to Grief, Dick Francis, the best selling author of over thirty books, brings back one of his most popular characters: Sid Halley, the wiry jockey turned detective who captured the attention of so many fans in Whip Hand. Filled with the crisp humor and quick stepping plots listeners have come to expect, this is Dick Francis at his best. Someone is maiming two year old colts, the cream of the future racing crop. Sid, whose hand was ruined in a race, is drawn to the plight of the magnificent horses, each found with one foot lopped off. But when he charges an old friend a pillar of the horse breeding community with the horrible crimes, the repercussions are swift and terrible. Dick Francis gives Sid an assortment of unlikely chums to aid him and keeps up a brisk pace as the investigation spreads far beyond the paddocks. The plot twists through paths of obsession and retribution, keeping the reader guessing until the last clue crosses finish line. ‘Few writers have maintained such a high standard of excellence for as long as ‘Dick Francis.’ San Diego Union Tribune’ from cassettes and case cover

Under Orders

‘Sadly, death at the races is not uncommon. However, three in a single afternoon was sufficiently unusual to raise more than one eyebrow.’

It’s the third death on Cheltenham Gold Cup Day that really troubles super sleuth Sid Halley. Last seen in 1995’s Come to Grief, former champion jockey Halley knows the perils of racing all too well but in his day, jockeys didn’t usually reach the finishing line with three . 38 rounds in the chest. But this is precisely how he finds jockey Huw Walker who, only a few hours earlier, had won the coveted Triumph Hurdle.

Just moments before the gruesome discovery, Halley had been called upon by Lord Enstone to make discreet inquiries into why his horses appeared to be on a permanent losing streak. Are races being fixed? Are bookies taking a cut? And if so, are trainers and jockeys playing a dangerous game with stakes far higher than they are realistic?

Halley’s quest for answers draws him even deeper into the darker side of the race game, in a life or death power play that will push him to his very limits both professionally and personally.

Break In

‘Francis is at the top of his form…
If you don’t like Break In I don’t understand you.’LARRY KINGUSA TODAYBlood ties can mean trouble, as Kit Fielding, sporting hero is about to find out. His close, even telepathic kinship with his twin sister Holly draws him into a crusade to save her marriage from ruinous scandal. But his intercession, both on and off the track, proves more costly than he’d imagined, thrusting him into a deadly contest of wit and will with a ruthless media czar, a black hearted robber baron, and an unexpectedly violent adversary far too close to home for comfort.

Bolt

When Kit Fielding, champion steeplechase jockey, finds out that his chief patron, Princess Casilia, is facing an increasingly serious threat, he goes unhesitatingly to her aid. Neither realises that his instinctive support is the first step towards a frightening battle involving violent risk, with the honour of the princess’ family as the prize and Kit’s own destruction as the forfeit. Beset by other problems, not least his troubled romance with Danielle, the princess’ niece, Kit knows that while steering through a maze of deadly outside dangers and riding at breakneck speed in races, he must also contend with the long term hatred of his own family’s enemy. Many of the characters from ‘Break In’ reappear in this superbly told story.

Dead Cert

In this masterpiece, Dick Francis, the bestselling master of mystery and suspense, takes you into the shocking world of horse racing where one man must bring his friends’ killers into the light, or else risk death himself…

Steeplechaser Alan York knows well the dangers of the sport. But when his best friend and rival, Bill Davidson, takes a fall in the middle of a race and doesn’t get up again, Alan discovers that it was no accident. Someone rigged a trip wire to take down the running horse. The more Alan investigates, the more he suspects that there is more to the plot than just murderous horseplay. But even as he approaches the finish line to this mysterious race, those responsible for his friend’s death are already planning for Alan to have a fatal accident of his own…

Nerve

From bestselling author Dick Francis, Nerve is the story of a struggling young jockey a misfit in a family of accomplished musicians who discovers that his troubling losing streak is caused not by a lack of skill or confidence, but by something far more sinister.

For Kicks

‘The best thriller writer going.’Atlantic MonthlyDaniel Roke didn’t want to leave his Australian stud farm to help look into an English horse doping scandal. But there he was in England, taking over invetsigative duties vacated by a racing journalist who had died in a suspicious auto accident. And soon enough, Daniel learned that men who would give drugs to horses would do much worse to human beings…
.

Flying Finish

When amateur jockey and pilot Lord Henry Grey launches himself into a career in the bloodstock market, he finds more danger and excitement than he’d ever anticipated. Henry immediately takes to his glittering new world and, when he meets the glamorous Gabriella in Italy, is sure he’s hit the good life. That is, until a horse mysteriously dies in transit and a colleague vanishes. Then Grey discovers that both his predecessors went missing in mysterious circumstances and begins to doubt the wisdom of his career change. Either he has to turn detective or his own disappearance could be next…

Blood Sport

When English agent Gene Hawkins told his boss he’d forego his vacation to search for millionaire Dave Teller’s prized missing stallion, he didn’t know his retainer would include the attentions of his boss’s beautiful daughter or Teller’s seldom sober wife. Nor did he know that a trail from London to New York to Las Vegas to Califonria would eventually lead to murder…
.

Forfeit

‘The best thriller writer going.’ATLANTIC MONTHLYJames Tyron, a racing reporter for a London scandal sheet, knew that fellow writer Bert Chekov was a drunk, but he always thought he was an honest one. But when Bert suddenly died in an ‘accidental’ fall from a window, Tyrone suspeced the clues to his death might be found in some suspicious columns he’d written touting can’t lose horses who myseriously failed to show up on race day. With his own professional and private lives in a chaotic jumble, Tyrone knew he’d have find a way to prove that Chekov was murdered. Be he didn’t know the terrifying risk he was unwittingly about to take…
.

Enquiry

‘One of the greatest living suspense writers.’CBS RADIOJockey Kelly Hughes and trainer Dexter Cranfield had been barred from racing for throwing a race for personal profit. It was a vicious frame up and, worse, they had nowhere to turn to clear their names. Still, Hughes refused to take the phony verdict lying down even though his personal Enquiry might have him lying down permanently…
.

Rat Race

Matt Shore was an experienced pilot. He’d done it all. From big jets to flying in supplies to war zones. So when he gets a job ferrying high class punters around England’s race courses he might be forgiven for expecting the quiet life. But then his plane explodes in a massive fireball. He could have been in it. Some quiet life. Instead he’s landed in the middle of a nightmare world where there is big money at stake. Very big money. From then on he finds himself hurtling down a tortuous trail where people are not all they appear, and all around him is sudden bloody death…
‘Impossible to stop reading’ ‘Daily Telegraph’.

Bonecrack

At twenty to midnight Neil Griffon’s home is broken into and he is roughly abducted by masked men. He has no idea who they are, or what they want. But when Neil wakes up, hours later, he quickly discovers that unless he cooperates his kidnappers will destroy his father’s precious horses, racing stable and ultimately Neil himself. Returned to take charge of the stables, Neil can tell no one about his ordeal. Vicious threats and horrible violence against his horses become a day to day reality and he is forced to comply with his blackmailer’s wishes. Trapped in a war of attrition, Neil realises he must find a way to stop these criminals before his nerve gives out. After all, a choice between his integrity and his life is no choice at all…

Smokescreen

Edward Lincoln had scaled the Himalayas, survived deadly car chases, defeated scores of assassins. As a film action man he’d even suffered stoically at the hands of sad*istic directors. After finishing his latest film, he’s asked to visit South Africa to discover why a dying friend’s horses are suddenly doing so badly on the race track. Unfortunately, this attempt to help a friend soon puts Lincoln in harm’s way. From a nearly fatal interview to a dangerous mishap in a gold mine, it seems only luck is keeping him alive. But fate has more in store. When the scene in the Kruger wildlife park begins to resemble Lincoln’s latest big screen adventure, even he will wonder what comes next…
‘A wonderfully vivid and sinister conclusion in the Kruger National Park’ ‘Sunday Times’.

Slay Ride

‘One of the greatest living suspense writers.’CBS RADIOBritish investigator David Cleveland has come to Oslo to investigate a champion jockey’s disappearance right before the National, a race he was certain to win. But he’s almost drowned in a fjord for his troubles. David knows accident and coincidence couldn’t begin to explain this little mishap or the oncoming gruesome string of deaths that David Cleveland would find was meant to include his own…
.

Knockdown

Steeplechase jockeys, like all other professional sportsmen, have to find a second career for themselves as the years go by. Jonah Dereham, retiring from the saddle at thirty two, chooses to become a bloodstock agent and spends his life travelling round racehorse sales, finding and bidding for the sort of horse each of his clients wants. Jonah wants only to mind his own business, but several disturbing incidents force him to realise that someone is out to ruin him, and to survive he has to find the answers. A couple of bully boys begin to put the boot in, and Jonah finds himself progressively forced to fight for the survival of his brother who hits the bottle; helped by a blonde in an orange MGB, he presses onward to a rough conclusion.

High Stakes

With a glass of champagne in one hand and binoculars in the other, the world of racing could seem a very cosy and civilized hobby. Especially when your horse has just sprinted past the winning post. But the pleasure of a day at Sandown is spoiled for Steven Scott when he sacks the trainer of his horses, a man he once thought of as a friend. For although on the surface Jody Leeds is a bright young workaholic, Scott suspects he’s a crook. Racing may have its rewards but, as Scott finds out to his own cost, not all of them are innocent…
or legal.

In the Frame

Charles Todd is an English artist, well known for his renderings of sleek and athletic horses. But what he sees at his brother’s he cannot capture on canvas. His sister in law has been murdered, and his brother is the prime suspect. Todd sudenly finds himself in a dangerous manhunt as he searches for an elusive killer who paints his own picture of mayhem…
.

Risk

As an amateur jockey, Roland Britten was lucky; as an accountant he was zealous. He knew he was on the hate list of several fraudsters, but never thought pen pushers got kidnapped not from a racecourse. Not after winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The identity of the kidnappers unknown, the reason behind Britten’s abduction is a mystery. Then, with the help of old school headmistress Hilary Pinlock, he escapes and begins to use his accountant’s logic to track his abductors down. But they have other ideas…
‘Dick Francis holds his form like a top class chaser’ The Times Literary Supplement

Trial Run

‘The best thriller writer going.’ATLANTIC MONTHLYRandall Draw couldn’t say no to a Prince, could he? So he was headed to Russia the Prince’s brother in law had his heart set on riding in the Olympics, and it seemed a jealous Russian woman had her heart set on killing him if he did. Leaving behind his well bred horses and high born girlfriend, Randall went to Moscow, little expecting that the sabotage and murder he’d find would pale in comparison to the unspeakable terror that followed…
.

Reflex

Philip Nore is nearing the end as a jockey. George Millace is finished in photography. The difference is Millace is dead and Nore has discovered his secret: a set of files which would blow the top off the racing world. Hated by a dying grandmother he has never known, and abused by a trainer he knows only too well, Nore is no stranger to shabby morals. And when he begins to decipher the dead man’s photographs, he uncovers corruption on a scale he had never imagined…
‘Another winner’ ‘Spectator’. ‘Dick Francis has excelled himself…
‘ ‘Daily Telegraph’.

Twice Shy

‘A thoroughbred thriller…
A winner.’THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLDYoung physicist Jonathan Derry is given some musical tapes by a friend. But the tapes are really an elaborate, computerized horse betting system that can make the owner a rich man or a dead one. Once again, high speed thrill master Dick Francis weaves a constantly twisting plot, a wicked villain, non stop action, and an explosive showdown into a superb book that races to the finish line, leaving you breathless for more…
.

Banker

It is difficult to say which was the first step towards the distant cataclysm. Looking back, Tim Ekaterin sees it as the day his boss stepped into a fountain. From there he is drawn into events and meets people as yet unconnected, but which, when woven together by time and chance, lead to violent action and the threat of death. Set in the world of merchant banking and thoroughbred racing, Banker is a terrific story which grows from seemingly harmless seeds to a wholly horrific harvest.

The Danger

Three kidnappings take place one in Italy, one in England and one in the US. All three crimes are connected with horseracing, but is one man behind them all? ‘Penguin Readers’ is a series of simplified novels, film novelizations and original titles that introduce students at all levels to the pleasures of reading in English. Originally designed for teaching English as a foreign language, the series’ combination of high interest level and low reading age makes it suitable for both English speaking teenagers with limited reading skills and students of English as a second language. Many titles in the series also provide access to the pre 20th century literature strands of the National Curriculum English Orders. ‘Penguin Readers’ are graded at seven levels of difficulty, from ‘Easystarts’ with a 200 word vocabulary, to Level 6 Advanced with a 3000 word vocabulary. In addition, titles fall into one of three sub categories: ‘Contemporary’, ‘Classics’ or ‘Originals’. At the end of each book there is a section of enjoyable exercises focusing on vocabulary building, comprehension, discussion and writing. Some titles in the series are available with an accompanying audio cassette, or in a book and cassette pack. Additionally, selected titles have free accompanying ‘Penguin Readers Factsheets’ which provide stimulating exercise material for students, as well as suggestions for teachers on how to exploit the Readers in class.

Proof

Tony Beach, wine merchant, knows his scotch, so to be asked to give his opinion of one particular bottle seems harmless enough. But the bottle contains firewater of a highly explosive nature and, without intending it, Tony finds himself trapped on a one way route into danger. From a harmless Sunday morning party at a racing stable and onwards to the edge of death, Tony comes nearer and nearer to a lethal adversary and, unexpectedly, to a fuller knowledge of his own true self. Set in the world of wine and spirits, ‘Proof‘ is crafted with Dick Francis’ usual high standard of drama, suspense and invention.

Hot Money

Multi millionaire Malcolm Pembroke’s colourful life has included five wives and nine children. When his fifth wife is murdered, he patches up a quarrel that has been simmering for nearly three years with his favourite son Ian, and asks for help. Ian Pembroke, who detested the fifth wife Moria, agrees to meet his father at Newmarket yearling sales. From here he is instantly whirled into a horrifying race against time to find Moira’s murderer before the maniac can strike again. Greed, malice and lethal ploys lie ahead on the rocketing journeyings of father and son as they track the killer remorselessly. Yet they are still able to grab some enjoyment along with the peril as they find time to watch many of the world’s top races.

The Edge

‘A tour de force…
A steadily high level of interest, comedy, suspense, and surprise.’THE ATLANTIC The Great Transcontinental Mystery Race is not only a glittering rail junket that promises the oportunity to race a thoroughbred on some of the world’s great courses, but is something more: an intriguing mystery will be enacted on board, which passengers will be invited to solve. But included on the guest list is one Julius Apollo Filmer, justifiably reputed to be the most ruthless operator lurking in the racing underworld, and he’s planning a strange plot of his own. For Tor Kelsey, undercover security agent for the British Jockey Club, a scenario of imaginary mayhem is about to explode into a nightmare of real and bloody murder.

Straight

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. Franklin likes to play things Straight. But with GBP1.5 million in diamonds gone missing, he finds honesty can be a deadly virtue. His only hope of survival is to identify his brother’s mysterious enemies…
Money hungry men who scorn the good and despise the Straight
‘For sheer style and pace Francis has few equals’ Sunday Express

Longshot

‘Fast paced, meticulously plotted…
Nobody sets up a mystery better than Dick Francis.’SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLETravel writer John Kendall didn’t think he was doing anything too out of the ordinary when he tramped off to rural England for an interview with a successful race horse trainer. Soon enough, however, Kendall realizes that completing the book will be tricky at best. In fact, the perils described in his survival manuals pale next to the dangers in rural England…
. Selected by the Literary Guild, the Mystery Guild, and Doubleday Book Club

Comeback

Peter Darwin was hoping for some quiet leave from the Foreign Office. Instead he found himself in the village of his childhood at the service of a veterinary surgeon whose operating theatre was rapidly acquiring an unwanted reputation as an abattoir. The sudden unexplained death of a string of valuable racehorses from one small area in Gloucestershire was a mystery the police couldn’t solve. But Darwin was local. He remembered the people and what was at stake…
And now he know enough to get himself killed…

Driving Force

Jockey Freddie Croft thought he’d left the perils behind him when he retired from the jump game. These days he was happy to transport horses from their stables to the races. Until one of his drivers picked up an unlicensed passenger. And brought him back dead. The corpse on the doorstep was Freddie’s unwelcome introduction to the shadowy, big money conspiracy which muscled into his business and started to threaten his life. But Freddie was a fighter, and winning was in his blood…
First identify the dangers. Then beat them out of sight…
‘A thundering good read’ Daily Mail ‘I enjoyed this book hugely’ Julie Burchill, Sunday Times ‘Galloping heroics…
the old master still engages all your interest’ Mail on Sunday

Decider

Free choice? There’s no such thing, according to Lee Morris. Choice is pre ordained by your personality. Stratton Park racecourse faces ruin in the hands of a squabbling family. Lee is slowly sucked into the turmoil, unwillingly on the surface but half understanding the deep compulsions that influence his decisions. One road leads to safety, another to death. How do you know which is which? Lee’s choices and their consequences bring deadly results, but the road out of the quicksand is there, if he can find it. Horses and racing are familiar ingredients, but this time there are also children, houses, roots and decisions. Danger? Naturally. Stratton Park racecourse is worth multi millions, and all of the Stratton family are playing to win.

Wild Horses

Valentine, a blind, confused and dying old man, seeking his peace with God, makes his last confession to a visiting friend, Thomas Lyon, mistaking him for a priest. Thomas, in Newmarket to research for a new film, is placed in a moral dilemma. Wild Horses wouldn’t drag from a priest the secrets of the confessional but then Thomas is not a priest. Should he tell what he knows from the confession, or not? He discovers that the solution to his quandary could mean the difference between life and death. ‘Wild Horses‘ is a masterly mix of convincing characters, fine writing and an inscrutable and ingenious plot.

To the Hilt

Alexander Kinloch found solitude and a steady income painting in a bothy on a remote Scottish mountain. Until the morning the strangers arrived to rough him up, and Alexander was dragged reluctantly back into the real and violent world he thought he had left behind. Millions of pounds are missing from his stepfather’s business. A valuable racehorse is under threat. Then comes the first ugly death and the end of all Alexander’s doubts. For the honour of the Kinlochs he will face the strangers…
up To the Hilt.

10 lb. Penalty

Ben Juliard had wanted to become a jockey. But his father, a prominent politician, pulled strings behind the scenes, and Ben found himself playing a role in George Juliard’s campaign for Parliament. Now Ben needs to do more than smile for the cameras for with each step up on the ladder of power come new dangers to the aspiring candidate. And as the mysterious attacks grow ever more lethal, Ben discovers that politics can be the most dangerous horse race of all.

Second Wind

The grand master of crime fiction gallops once again into the winner’s circle with his extraordinary new novel. Dick Francis takes us on his most electrifying, death defying ride yet in Second Wind. The catastrophic power of a giant hurricane can raise coastal waves thirty feet high and blow through houses at devastating speeds. For TV meteorologist Perry Stuart, however, such predictions are generally hypothetical, as he chiefly predicts periods of English drizzle, with bursts of heavier rain and sunshine to follow. Stuart’s profound weather knowledge and accuracy have given him high status among forecasters, but no physical baptism by storm. Not, that is, until a fellow forecaster offers him a Caribbean hurricane chasing ride in a small airplane as a holiday diversion. But a frightening accident teaches Stuart more secrets than wind speeds…
and back home in England he faces threats and danger as deadly as anything nature can evolve. Dick Francis ‘has simply never failed. Every one of his opening sentences pulls the reader in, and doesn’t let go until the last, perfect word,’ according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Second Wind may be his greatest triumph yet.

Shattered

When jockey Martin Stukely dies after falling in a steeplechase at Cheltenham races, he accidentally embroils his friend Gerard Logan in a perilous search for a stolen video tape. Logan, half artist, half artisan, is a glass blower on the verge of widespread acclaim for the originality and ingenuity of his work. Long accustomed to the frightful dangers inherent in molten glass and in maintaining a glass making furnace at never less than eighteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit, Logan is suddenly faced with a series of unexpected and terrifying new threats to his business, his courage and his life. Believing the missing video tape to hold some sort of key to a priceless treasure, and wrongly convinced that Logan knows where to find it, a group of villains sets out to force from him the information he doesn’t have. Narrowly escaping these attacks, Logan reckons that to survive he must himself find out the truth. The journey is thorn*y, and the final race to the tape throws more hurdles and more hazards in Logan’s way than his dead jockey friend could ever have imagined. Glass shatters. Logan doesn’t…
but it’s a close run thing.

Dead Heat (With: Felix Francis)

After a six year absence from the bestseller lists, Dick Francis roared out of the gate with 2006’s Under Orders, demonstrating once again every ounce of his famed narrative drive, brilliant plotting, and simmering suspense. Hard on the heels of that triumph comes Dead Heat, set against the backdrop of Britain’s famed Two Thousand Guineas Stakes.

Max Moreton is a rising culinary star and his Newmarket restaurant, The Hay Net, has brought him great acclaim and a widening circle of admirers. But when nearly all the guests who enjoyed one of his meals at a private catered affair fall victim to severe food poisoning, his kitchen is shuttered and his reputation takes a hit. Scrambling to meet his next obligation, an exclusive luncheon for forty in the glass fronted private boxes at the Two Thousand Guineas, Max must overcome the previous evening’s disaster and provide the new American sponsors of the year’s first classic race with a day to remember.

Then a bomb blast rips through the private boxes, killing some of Max’s trusted staff as well as many of the guests. As survivors are rushed to the hospital, Max is left to survey the ruins of the grandstand and of his career. Two close calls are too close for comfort, and Max vows to protect his name and himself before it’s too late.

Silks (With: Felix Francis)

Julian Trent, you have been found guilty by this court of perpetrating a violent and unprovoked attack on an innocent family including a charge of attempted murder. You have shown little or no remorse for your actions and I consider you a danger to society.

When defense lawyer Geoffrey Mason hears the judge’s ruling at London s Old Bailey, he quietly hopes that a substantial sentence will be handed down to his arrogant young client. That Julian Trent only receives eight years seems all too lenient. Little does Mason realize that he ll be looking Trent in the eyes again much sooner than that.

Setting aside his barrister s gown and wig, Mason heads to Sandown racetrack to don his colorful racing silks. As an amateur jockey, he fulfills his true passion by pounding the turf in the heat of a steeplechase. Yet when a fellow rider is brutally murdered a pitchfork driven through his chest Mason s racing hobby soon becomes too close to his work. The prime suspect is one of their brethren, champion jockey Steve Mitchell, and the evidence against him seems overwhelming.

Mason is reluctant to heed Mitchell s plea for legal help but he soon finds himself at the center of a sinister web of violence, threats and intimidation. Mason is left fighting a battle of right and wrong, and more immediately, a battle of life and death his own.

Even Money (With: Felix Francis)

On the first day of Royal Ascot, the crowd rejoices in a string of winning favourites. Ned Talbot has worked all his life as a bookmaker taking over the family business from his grandfather so he knows not to expect any sympathy from the punters as they count their winnings, and he counts his losses. He’s seen the ups and downs before but, as the big gambling conglomerates muscle in on small concerns like his, Ned wonders if it’s worth it any more. When a grey haired man steps forward from the crowd claiming to be his father, Ned’s life is thrown into far deeper turmoil. He’d been told since he was a baby that his parents had died in a car crash. Barely an hour later his newly found father is stabbed by an unknown assailant in the Ascot car park. Blood oozing from his abdomen, he warns Ned: ‘Be very careful’. But of whom? Of what? Ned finds himself in a race to solve his father’s riddles, a race where coming second could cost him more than even money, it could cost him his life.

Crossfire (With: Felix Francis)

An exhilarating new novel from the New York Times bestselling authors. Shell shocked and missing a foot lost to an IED during his tour of duty in Afghanistan Captain Tom Forsyth has been sent ‘home’ by the army and, at loose ends, returns to his estranged mother’s house for the first time since he joined up at seventeen. But Josephine Kauri, the ‘first lady of British racing,’ has always put the horses she trains first and her family last. Tom soon finds himself strained to the breaking point with his mother and stepfather. But there’s another reason for the stifling tension at Kauri House Stables: Josephine is being blackmailed for a hefty sum every week and forced to make her horses lose. Retirement is not an option, as she has been warned that it will result in the thing she most fears: exposure and ridicule…
and prison, when the government finds out what she’s been hiding. Tom sets out to discover and defeat this hidden enemy using his finely honed military skills. But can he save his mother’s reputation and career, or will he find himself caught in the cross fire?

Gamble (By:Felix Francis)

As one of the youngest ever winners of the Grand National, Nick ‘Foxy’ Foxton’s career as a world class jockey is on perfect track until a near fatal accident cuts his dream brutally short. But when he returns to Aintree as a spectator years later, nothing can prepare him for what unfolds. Minutes before the biggest event on the racing calendar, Nick’s affable American colleague Herb Kovak is shot at point blank range, the gunman disappearing amongst the stunned crowd. Along with the police, Nick is left baffled as to why anyone would want to kill such an apparently gentle soul. With the press speculating links to gangland crime and a crumpled note containing a threatening message found in the dead man’s coat, Nick begins to doubt how well he really knew Herb. And on discovering Herb had named him as the benefactor of his will, Nick questions why he has been entrusted with the legacy. Is this a generous gift from a friend or is it, in fact, a poisoned chalice?

Field of Thirteen

With his remarkable blend of unrelenting suspense, finely tuned narrative, and lean, stylish prose, Dick Francis’s thrillers have led readers to the winner’s circle year after year. From his very first novel, Dead Cert, to his most recent, 10 lb. Penalty, the three time Edgar Award winner has treated his fans to a world of equine thrills and human frailty in a string of bestsellers of unparalleled excellence. But with Field of Thirteen, Dick Francis takes on his biggest challenge yet. In this superbly crafted collection of short stories many of them new and never before published the settings range from a spring race meeting at Cheltenham, where a middle aged owner falls hopelessly in love with her jockey, to a running of the Grand National interrupted by a bomb scare, to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, where demon drink and wilting willpower take their toll. Dick Francis’s fans have a wonderful treat in store thirteen tightly knotted plots to marvel at, thirteen sets of classic Francis characters to admire, and thirteen stings of the tail to gasp over. Field of Thirteen proves Dick Francis is as much the master of the short story as he is of the novel.

The Sport of Queens: The Autobiography of Dick Francis

This is the biography of thriller writer Dick Francis. Francis is known for setting his novels against the background of horseracing. This revised edition tells how he became one of Britain’s leading National Hunt jockeys and a champion steeplechaser, riding as jockey to the Queen Mother. The story of Francis is traced from life in the saddle to life as a bestselling novelist.

Related Authors

Leave a Comment