Trial Run

by Dick Francis

Veteran horseman Randall Drew travels to Moscow to help the Russian royal family--but ends up caught in a world of jealousy, sabotage, and murder.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Horses, British Literature

272 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Dick Francis, CBE, FRSL (born Richard Stanley Francis) was a popular British horse racing crime writer and retired jockey.

Dick Francis worked on his books with his wife, Mary, before her death. Dick considered his wife to be his co-writer - as he is quoted in the book, "The Dick Francis Companion", released in 2003:
"Mary and I worked as a team. ... I have often said that I would have been happy to have both our names on the cover. Mary's family always called me Richard due to having another Dick in the family. I am Richard, Mary was Mary, and Dick Francis was the two of us together."

Praise for Dick Francis: 'As a jockey, Dick Francis was unbeatable when he got into his stride. The same is true of his crime writing' Daily Mirror '

Dick Francis's fiction has a secret ingredient - his inimitable knack of grabbing the reader's attention on page one and holding it tight until the very end' Sunday Telegraph '

Dick Francis was one of the most successful post-war National Hunt jockeys. The winner of over 350 races, he was champion jockey in 1953/1954 and rode for HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, most famously on Devon Loch in the 1956 Grand National.

On his retirement from the saddle, he published his autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write forty-three bestselling novels, a volume of short stories (Field of 13), and the biography of Lester Piggott.

During his lifetime Dick Francis received many awards, amongst them the prestigious Crime Writers' Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the genre, and three 'best novel' Edgar Allan Poe awards from The Mystery Writers of America. In 1996 he was named by them as Grand Master for a lifetime's achievement. In 1998 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2000. Dick Francis died in February 2010, at the age of eighty-nine, but he remains one of the greatest thriller writers of all time.

Series:
* Sid Halley Mystery
* Kit Fielding Mystery

Reviews

[James Thane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has to be, to my mind at least, the weakest of the novels written by Dick Francis. And, at least in the editions I own, it also has to win the prize for weirdest cover art.

The story opens when an amateur jockey and horse trainer named Randall Drew is approached by a member of the royal family with a special assignment. The prince's brother-in-law, a jockey named Johnny Farrington, would like to ride in the upcoming Olympic Games which are to be held in Moscow. But rumors are circulating that if Farrington should go to Russia, he might be entrapped in a scandal involving someone named Alyosha. The prince wants Drew to go to Moscow and nose around to see what the scandal might involve and determine whether Farrington or the royal family might be potentially embarrassed.

Apparently, there are no British agents already in the Soviet Union that might check out these rumors and so Drew reluctantly agrees to go. He gets to Moscow, meets some people, asks some questions, and gets beaten up a lot. The plot is preposterous and much more resembles a spy novel than a typical Dick Francis thriller. It strongly suggests that Francis wanted to take a trip to Moscow and write it off as a business expense, and thus attempted to get a book out of his vacation.

I had a great deal of difficulty following the plot and sorting out the characters after I was about a third of the way into the book, although this may well be because by then I had simply stopped caring about any of it and finished it only out of a sense of duty. A generous 2.5 stars, rounded up to three because I can't bring myself to give Dick Francis 2.5.

[W · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was quite a brouhaha over the Moscow Olympics in 1980.The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan the previous year,and the Soviet block apart,most of the rest of the world,boycotted the olympics.

This book was written just before that,when it seemed that a full fledged olympics would be held in Moscow.

This time,there is relatively little by way of horse racing.A relative of a British prince is supposed to ride in the olympics and Randall Drew is asked to go to Moscow before that to ensure that he does not run into trouble.

The familiar Francis ingredients of blackmail and violence are present.But for me,the most interesting part of the book was the authentic description of life behind the iron curtain.

The city of Moscow is beautifully described,I could almost feel the chill of the Russian winter.And if there is less by way of racing,that too was a refreshing departure.

I'm sure Francis could have written first class thrillers,without the horse racing background,but he never tried even once.

[Algernon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dick Francis has been one of the most reliable writers of crime fiction for me, guaranteed to fill in a lazy Sunday afternoon with a pleasant and mildly thrilling mystery set around the horse racing world. I believe Trial Run is the first misfire in the 30+ novels of his I've read so far. I will try to keep my review short, as I really don't like to attack one of my favorite writers.

Trial Run is atypical for me in the Dick Francis catalogue for two reasons :

- his heroes are usually quiet types, with a pleasant, restrained demeanour, easy to like and in general favorable disposed towards the world and friendly with the people they meet. Randall Drew starts as the same type of protagonist, but once he sets foot on Russian soil, he turns into a hate machine for everything he sees around him - not a kind word to be said about Moscow, its people, its culture, its cuisine or its social life. Instead he goes on long and vituperative rants about how ugly and mean and oppresive life in the Soviet Union is - a specialist in only a couple of hours, criticizing the system and the people with acid abandon. Randall's anti-communist attacks colour every page of the novel, repeating and exagerrating all the usual claims that were the norm of the 1950's Western propaganda. None of the heroes I've met in previous Dick Francis books has been so politically involved and so vehement in passing judgement on a country and a culture he is visiting for the first time, not even the one in the book about South Africa, who didn't even touch on the subject of Apartheid. (there are a lot of Dick Francis books that are partly travelogues from around the world)

- the plot here is really forced, descending into some almost silly scenes, coincidences and revelations towards the end. The beginning is again rather standard: Randall Drew is a succesful jockey, forced off the track by the authorities because he wears glasses. He is gentry, has an interest in farming and he really, really likes the British Royal family. But from this premise we jump to him agreeing to go to Moscow as a private investigator to search for the mysterious Alyosha - a person who threatens the safety and the reputation of one royal connected member of the British horse rider delegation to Olympic Games. There's also the suspicious murder of a German rider at a trial event for qualifying at the said Olympic Games. Pretty soon, the plot takes a sharp turn from a murder mystery investigation and becomes a sort of Cold Era spy thriller, as Randall is followed everywhere by the KGB, his room is bugged, everybody is afraid to talk to him, and several attempts are made on his life. Turns out Randall got himself caught up in an international terrorism plot, and the little English lord that started the investigation has nothing to do with it. Randall solves the case by a series of lucky discoveries of clues and by gallantly boxing the ears of a couple of the most inept terrorists ever . There's also an almost total lack of horse riding time and horse related information, with the exception of a single ride for Randall and some suspect veterinary chemistry claims.

I was tempted to give up on the story more than once, but I really want to complete a read through of all Dick Francis novels in chronological order, so I'll try to jump into the next one soon, hoping for a return to form (he is usually one of the most predictable authors in terms of plot and character development).

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read with espionage in Moscow in the late 1970s. Randall an aristocrat is asked to go to Moscow in winter to see if a relative of the Prince could come a cropper. Set before the 1980 Olympics we get a feel for Russians living in fear and several attempts on Randall’s life when he gets to close to the truth.

Some of the episodes are far fetched like surviving a fall in a Moscow river in winter. Francis does capture the tense secretive atmosphere of communist Russia. Murder, beatings and escape are as always entertaining under Francis’s penmanship.

[Gerald Sinstadt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Has to be read these days as a period piece, set as it is in Russia before the break-up of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, anyone who visitedMoscow at that time will recognise the authenticity of the portrait.

The background is equine - but eventing, not racing - and will appeal to those who like a good espionage yarn. Dick Francis enthusiasts will find the author's ability to keep the pages turning is well up to standard.

In common with several other authors recently encountered, Francis sadly fails to understand the meaning of the word Crescendo. It is not a climax, and it is simply wrong to suggest as much. It makes themany references here to Ravel\s Bolero uncomfortably jarring.

[Melliott · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my least favorite ever of Dick Francis's books. It started out confusingly, and became increasingly more so as the book went on. The Moscow setting, including the politics of the day, was depressingly dour, and the satisfaction of solving the mystery didn't alleviate all the confusion, although it was nice to finally (finally) have some exciting action and revelation way too far towards the end of the story. I felt like perhaps someone had dismissed Francis's books in comparison with someone such as John Le Carré, and Francis decided he would show them. It was not a successful effort. I did like the main character, and the characters of the translator and some of the Russians were engaging, but not enough to save the book.

[Harry · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is there to say about Dick Francis? As I think about all of his books (yes, this review covers all of his books, and yes I've read them all) I think about a moral ethical hero, steeped in intelligence and goodness embroiled in evil machinations within British horse racing society - either directly or indirectly. The heroes aren't always horse jockies, they can be film producers, or involve heroes engaged in peripheral professions that somehow always touch the horse racing world.

But more than that, Francis's heroes are rational human beings. The choices made are rational choices directed by a firm objective philosophy that belies all of Francis's novels. The dialogue is clear and touched with humor no matter the intensity of evil that the hero faces. The hero's thoughts reveal a vulnerability that is touching, while his actions are always based on doing the right thing to achieve justice.

Causing the reader to deeply care about the characters in a novel is a difficult thing to do. No such worries in a Francis novel. The point of view is first person, you are the main character as you read the story (usually the character of Mr. Douglas). The hero is personable, like able, non-violent but delivering swift justice with his mind rather than through physical means. This is not to say that violence is a stranger to our hero. Some of it staggering and often delivered by what we would think of normal persons living in British society.

You will come to love the world of Steeple Chase racing, you will grow a fondness for horses, stables, trainers and the people who live in that world. You will read the books, devouring one after the other and trust me Dick Francis has a lot of novels (over 40 by my last count).

There are several series woven into the fabric of Francis's work: notably the Sid Halley and Kit Fielding series.

Assessment: Dick Francis is one of my favorite writers. I read his books with a fierce hunger that remains insatiable and I mourn his death.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always think of Dick Francis novels as my palate cleansers, but that's not really fair to him. Sure, they're breezy, fun reads. They're also tightly plotted, and impeccably researched. His characters all have complex motivations and human flaws. Any writer could learn from him. This one wasn't my favorite: too much gay scare, women pretty much only present as dragon ladies or free-woman-of-the-seventies style lovers. Francis did a great job of getting me to envision a Moscow winter in the late 70s, though, and it was still a fun ride.

[Annery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic audio the story is great & well told, and, as I've noted before, history repeats itself.

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure I believe it, but there it is: amazon has Trial Run listed as out of print. Amazing.

By now I should be inured to the pace of a Dick Francis novel, which is roughly equivalent to that of a marathon turf stakes at Ascot: in order to conserve energy, the horses start off slow, knowing they have a couple of thousand meters ahead of them; the pace picks up after you get round to the backstretch the first time, and the finish is furious. Francis spent too much time on the backs of nags at Royal Ascot to forget that, I guess. And thus you know that the first three or four chapters of a Francis mystery are likely to bog down. Stick with it; it's almost always worth the trip.

Randall Drew has been forced into retirement (like many of Francis' jockeys). In this case, it's because the jockey club has seen fit to outlaw riding with glasses, and contacts and Drew don't mix well. Drew, friend and lover to English royalty, is tabbed by the Prince to investigate shadowy claims of threats to a Royal who wants to ride in the 1980 Moscow olympics, threats that are backed up by the death of a German olympic rider, supposedly of a heart attack-- but foul play is suspected. Drew heads off to Moscow, and the fun begins.

If you know Francis, you already know whether you're going to buy this or not, I suspect. Francis mysteries are basically formulaic. Ex-jockey becomes amateur detective, ex-jockey discovers something nasty is happening at a track somewhere, ex-jockey investigates, ex-jockey gets into scrapes, ex-jockey gets out of scrapes, ex-jockey solves crime. It's good clean mindless fun, and this one has nothing about it that stands out from the others, save its rather odd location (which seems quaint given the collapse of the cold war nowadays). Good if you like Francis, bad if you don't, and not a book I'd suggest as a jumping-off point if you don't know his work (try Odds Against or Enquiry instead, where Francis is on his home turf).

[Kwoomac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really 2.5 stars. One of my least favorite Dick Francis novels. I found a lot of it so boring. I felt like DF must’ve recently read a spy novel taking place in Russia and decided to write his own. There was not a lot of suspense. Sure, our hero Randall Drew nearly drowned after being tipped into a freezing cold river. But, seriously, is the hero going to die halfway through? He gives a lot of detail about traveling from place to place, describing the food, how hard it is to do anything in Russia. Also, lots if talk about the need for diplomacy, which Randall Drew is naturally good at.

Speaking of Drew, he’s a pretty typical Francis protagonist. Let’s check them off: connection to horses, smart, calm, odd/nonexistent relationship with family/girlfriend, quietly rich. Francis added a weird subplot about hero’s ongoing struggle with bronchitis. Not sure why.

Finally, and maybe worth an extra star because Francis came through with relationship weirdness, there’s the marriage proposal. To girlfriend, “If you ever get tired of your shop job…I can give you another job.” “As what?” “Domestic servant. Nanny. Cook. Laundry maid. General all-purpose dogsbody. Farmhand. Wife.” How about that for a proposal! She turned him down.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

A convoluted plotline and not up to the usual Dick Francis standard.

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dick Francis is always great for me...relaxing...interesting...love the British ways...mysterious...but not so much so that I can't put it down and go on to something else.
Randall Drew, a horseman who has recently been barred from racing because he wears glasses (of all things!), finds himself much needed by the prince to help resolve a confusion that has to do with the prince's brother-in-law, the Olympics, and the Russians. In Moscow, Randall sees the grimmer side of Russian life, while trying to save his own, and trying to find Alyosha...the apparent key to the confusion.

[Jane Cordingley · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review comes from a different perspective. I just returned from my first ever visit to Russia (Siberia, Moscow and St Petersburg) and this provided an amazing comparison of Soviet Russia to today (or at least our perspective of Soviet Russia). It was a treat to read, given the experience.

[C.E. Case · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent look at Cold War Russia. A world I was too young to really know for myself. Quite different than the usual Dick Francis book.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one deals with spies and Russia.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dick Francis always entertains.

[SB · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5✨

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh dear.
I knew when they dragged in an HRH in the first few pages we were in trouble.
At first I thought "champion jockey meets 007", which would be bad enough, but it isn't even that. Our Hero is only a severely astigmatic and nearly asthmatic non-champion jockey (which always works) and therefore forcibly retired to become Gentleman Farmer and Trainer and he's way more Henry Palmer than James Bond, in spite of his apparently photographic memory and all the rest of that. I'm still wondering how he could bring all these asthma/bronchitis drugs into the Moscow of the day without question, but never mind.
I know I read this book back in the 80s, but all I could remember was the thing about the tape recorder and vaguely something about the river. Listening to it I was forcibly reminded of the film of "The Ipcress File", which made little to no sense the first time I saw it back in the seventies (when I was a kid and didn't expect to understand international intrigue) but when I saw it in the 90s during a particularly vicious bout of respiratory flu, with a raging fever and in French, thank you very much--it made perfect sense. Tried to watch it in English a few years later and was back to total confusion. It could have been fun if Francis hadn't tried to pass off this Joe Perfect Computer Mind as a bumbling non-spy who just wanted to go home, which wasn't helped by all the coinkidinks that saved him from death--how many times was it in total? A lot, anyway.
Mr Bronchial Bat Blind Innocent Abroad Indestructo.
Yeah, right. Because after all he's British, and a jockey, and a free man! (cue theme music for The Prisoner) All the horse fraternity are by definition decent folk, of course, no matter what their political affiliations may be, and because some big wig saw him place third in some race or other, Mr Indestructo has entry to all kinds of people and places.

"Yuh", as the reader might have put it.

As for the plot, I nailed the bad guy the moment he made an appearance, and a few of the other elements were as obvious to me--but then a vet in my own city died of the murder weapon in the course of his normal duties, and my own cat's vet, who was present at the time, was terrified of using the stuff after that. I will admit I was amused at the repetition of how minor employees such as telephone operators and hotel receptionists used dumb insolence to be obstructive; things weren't much different in the Britain of the time, if you ever tried to get information out of your typical jobsworth! But it gave Francis the excuse to beat the jingoist drum, which is what he wanted.

A mediocre book once again saved by Simon Prebble's reading which is the only thing that gave it the third star. I do wonder what he thought of the book. He read it as if he liked it, but I wonder.
(Oh and btw, of course he wasn't helping "the Russian royal family", as there isn't one anymore. Somebody please rescue the GR blurb!)

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn’t Dick Francis’ best novel. For roughly the first half of the book, it is a plodding mystery without purpose. The hero, Randall, is on a nebulous mission to Moscow to identify “Alyosha”, a mysterious person who poses an unidentified threat to the brother-in-law of a prince of England if he dares to come to Moscow to ride in the Olympics. The British government is only barely interested in the threat—they just want the young man to stay home—and Randall is pressured by the prince to go find out if there is actually a problem. There is no reason to realistically think he has any chance of learning anything and Francis depends too heavily on the camaraderie of the racing business to feed Randall weak clues in the oppressive Soviet environment.

The villain of the story is obvious from the first time he appears in a scene, but it isn’t obvious what he is doing or why he is doing it. Attempts to murder Randall begin to pile up and for the first time in any Dick Francis novel it makes sense for the hero not to go to the police for help. His whole point in going to Russia is to avert a scandal and going to the Soviet police force might not be the best idea even if it wouldn’t trigger that scandal.

The one thing that saved this story was the ending. I have long complained that Dick Francis likes to end his novels one chapter too soon. Once the action is over, he drops the tale, almost always leaving important resolution of subplots incomplete. This time he doesn’t do that. Randall returns to England and resolves things with the prince. I wish he had done that more frequently.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Kathryn McCary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Francis's mystery novels always involved more than their racing background and the plot-vehicle mystery. This one is a little more intensely about something else than most.

An upper-class English rider (with myopia and asthma) is dragooned by minor nobility into going to Moscow, in advance of the 1980 Olympic Games, to investigate a rumor that one of the possible riders for the British horse team will encounter the mysterious Alyosha, to his cost, should he attend the Games. More than a decade before the fall of the Wall, with Glasnost and Perestroika still unimaginable, but with the memory of the Munich Olympics very much alive, and terrorism beginning to stretch its muscles as the replacement for the "red under the bed," Francis's thoughts about terrorism were in many ways prescient. Fascinating that, for this one book, his protagonist is of the upper classes, rather than the working class and upper-middle class. His observations about life under the Soviet regime one has to trust, as he was generally a careful observer and reporter; but not all of his conclusions about the ideology and the system ring entirely true. Still, they are very much of the period in which he wrote--and this is definitely an entertaining setting for them

[Contrarius · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book in the Francis series steeps itself in the atmosphere of Cold War Russia, with some interesting observations on how institutionalized fear can warp the character of a people. Unfortunately, the narrator for the audio version of this volume (Tony Britton) had no idea of how to do a Russian accent, so most of the characters ended up sounding more German or Scandinavian than Russian. This one was fun overall, with twists and turns to match the spy caper tone of the book and multiple references to other spy stories of the time. It is also relevant for today's readers, however, since the central mystery involves terrorism at a public event.

If anyone is wondering -- the drugs referenced in this book are real drugs, and they would have more-or-less the effects claimed in the book. However, no pathologist would confuse the true cause of death with heart attack these days.

[Katt Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Randall Drew heads to the USSR to look for a mysterious figure who might bring harm to one of the riders on the Olympic Team. Adventure abounds.

I haven't read this book in ages was happy to see it aged fairly well. You absolutely MUST take this in the context of when it was written, both in the spy plot and the "embarrassing" incident Randall is investigating. That said, it's still a great story with a lot of suspense, enough danger to make you think twice walking alongside any Russian rivers in November, and a satisfying ending. This is one of Dick Francis' better books, and well worth reading if you haven't yet.

[David Freas · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the general theme of this book--terrorism--is still current, the setting--Soviet Russia--is somewhat dated. This is not a fault of the book but a consequence of the passage of time, since it was first published in the late 70s.
The story itself was very good as all Dick Francis stories are but I felt the conclusion was a little weak, as if Francis felt the need to stretch the tale just a few more pages. Deleting the last two short scenes in the book would have made for a much stronger ending in my opinion.

[Usfromdk · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one felt a bit aimless, and I was slightly disappointed by it. It seemed to me as if Francis while writing it had been more concerned about writing a book about stuff taking place in Moscow (during the Cold War) than he'd been about developing a good plot. As a loose characterization of at least some aspects of life in Russia during that time it's probably not that bad (queues/shortages, low-quality food/housing stock, pervasive lack of trust, etc.), but the actual story/plot I did not find particularly interesting.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another great everyman mystery by my best pal, Dick Francis. Travel back to 1978, during the Cold War with Russia. We are scared of them, they are scared of us.

Randall Drew, ex-steeplechaser and general all-around good chap, is sent over to do some spying. By the Prince, no less. How would you say no to him? The mystery is a little unclear in places, but it all comes together by the end.

If you like horses, Russian-US Cold War, mysteries, and good guy main characters, you should check this one out. 3 enjoyable stars.

[Eli · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t love it

The book it probably worth 3 stars for writing but I didn’t enjoy it.

I didn’t even like it until after the hero gets attacked for the second time which is over half way in. Until then the story felt as dreary as it’s communist, Moscow in winter, setting.

Nine times out of ten I love Francis books so it feels extra disappointing when I don’t. This was highlighted by the fact that the revealed villainy is a one of Francis’ most surprising and interesting.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moscow, the Olympics and a mystery with Francis' usual cool and collected hero. A little bit confusing at times but an interesting look at Moscow during the Cold War. And during November, a very cold time to be lurking around the streets of Moscow.

Maybe only 3 stars this time around, but still a good book!

[Gareth Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is my first Dick Francis novel. I had heard a few radio adaptations of his stories prior to reading this and enjoyed them. It’s not hard to see why Francis is a popular author. His characters are engaging and his plots are pacy. However, whilst this was a quick read, it lacked a degree of plausibility, which rather militated against it being an especially enjoyable read.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

An old school Cold War/KGB plot, set in 1978. Loved it, and finished it in two days. Must recommend.