Four Complete Novels: Odds Against / Flying Finish / Blood Sport / Rat Race

by Dick Francis

Four of the early novels by Dick Frances. Odds against is the first of the Sid Halley mysteries. Odds against (1965): 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. Flying finish (1966): Lord Henry Grey was an amateur jockey and pilot. But when he decides to abandon his desk-bound job for an active career in the bloodstock market, he finds that there is more to couriering valuable horses around the world than he had ever suspected. Blood sport (1967): Gene Hawkings must travel to Kentucky, on the orders of his boss, to spend three weeks looking for kidnapped stallions. But before he leaves, Gene's survival skills are called on closer to home, catapulting him into a maelstrom of blackmail and murder. Rat race (1970): Matt Shore is a substitute pilot assigned to fly four racing buffs to the track. They're nervous, but Matt's not. That is, until he manages an emergency landing minutes before the plane explodes. Matt doesn't think anything else can possibly go wrong. Then he finds himself caught up in a rat race of danger that puts him on the wrong side of the odds....

Genres: Mystery

596 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Dick Francis was a British jockey and crime novelist whose life and work were closely connected with the world of horse racing. Raised in Berkshire in a family involved with horses, he left school at fifteen with the ambition of becoming a jockey and began training horses as a teenager. During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Air Force as a pilot, flying fighters and bombers before returning to racing after the war. He became one of Britain's leading National Hunt jockeys, winning more than 350 races and becoming champion jockey in the 1953–54 season. From 1953 to 1957, he was jockey to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and his most famous race came in the 1956 Grand National, when her horse Devon Loch fell suddenly while apparently heading toward victory. After retiring from racing following another serious fall, Francis turned to journalism and writing. His autobiography, The Sport of Queens, led to sixteen years as racing correspondent for the Sunday Express, while his first thriller, Dead Cert, established the formula that would make him an international bestseller. He went on to write more than forty novels, most set against the backdrop of British horse racing but featuring protagonists from a wide range of professions. His stories combine detailed knowledge of racing with tightly constructed mysteries, dangerous investigations and protagonists forced to overcome serious physical and personal obstacles. Among his best-known recurring characters is Sid Halley, a former jockey turned private investigator who appears in Odds Against, Whip Hand, Come to Grief and Under Orders. Francis's wife, Mary, was an important collaborator throughout his writing career, conducting research, editing manuscripts and contributing to plot and character development. Their son Felix later became his father's collaborator and continued the Francis tradition after his father's death. A three-time winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel, Francis also received the Gold Dagger, the Cartier Diamond Dagger and the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award. His novels brought the specialized world of horse racing to an international readership and established him as one of the most influential writers of the racing thriller.

Reviews

[Doodles McC · Rating 4 out of 5]

18 year old me loved the novella "Blood Sport", Gene Hawkings must travel to Kentucky, on the orders of his boss, to spend three weeks looking for kidnapped stallions.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always admired Dick Francis' minimalist style - he can sum up a character in a sentence - and two of these books really shine: "Odds Against" and "Blood Sport". I've read all four books at least five times each. He covers significant life themes, along with the protagonist's dogged pursuit of deviltry, such as life-debilitating depression. His understanding of the nature of evil, from petty to full-scale, is never graphic but always unsettlingly real.

Though I appreciated "Flying Finish" - the compelling story of a member of the landed gentry who wanted a normal life - I didn't appreciate the overly romantic tone. I much preferred "Rat Race", in which a pilot suffers unfair setbacks, but his unlikely friendship with a competitive jockey helps pull him through - and lead him to understated romance. (One of the best bit characters, Chanter, is a 1970's caricature of whirling beads and unlikely lingo - loved to hate him. Francis was obviously not a fan of peace, love, and lack of work ethic.)

[Jen Akira-Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great storyteller. If you want to escape in a novel that is easy to read, great characters, 'good' protagonaist, old-school. You'll love it. If you like Archer, Grisham etc etc Dick Francis will be up there with your favourites. You can escape into the horseracing world for days, even if you have absolutely no interest in it.

[Kelly Dinterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoy his books

[Diannablack123gmail.Com]

Elizabeth Kuntz recommendation