Dick Francis Message Board 5/24/2008 7:09:37 PM
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Dick Francis's books always have something to do with horse racing. In this case, that's just part of the plot.
Benedict Juliard is 18. He's out of school and living on his own, making his living as a jockey, when his father arranges for Benedict's boss to fire Benedict. The senior Juliard is running for Parliament. A widower, he needs to show the public that he's a family man.
George Juliard has always been generous with Benedict, but the tw... Banker
Young merchant banker Tim Ekaterin appoves a 5 million-pound loan to buy the fabulous racehorse Sandcastle for breeding purposes. The risks are high, but so is the potential profit for the bank his great-grandfather founded. His own career is on the line, too. So when the foals are born with inexplicable birth defects, Tim begins to investigate, handling the case like a pro. He begins to suspect that someone is out to sabotage the stud farm where Sandcas... Blood Sport
Gene Hawkins, a British Investigator, was on vacation or he was until his boss asked him to help find Dave Teller's missing Thoroughbred stallion Chrysalis. Hawkins agrees because he has nothing better to do then sit around and be depressed.
Hawkins finds out quickly that things are a lot more complicated then he thought. There's not one missing horse, but three, and there's a family of crooks that's trying to cover up their theft at all costs. Th... Bolt
The sequel to Break-In features the same hero Kit Fielding, champion steeplechase jockey. Still embroiled in a bitter, long-standing feud, this time an unknown criminal is destroying valuable race horses with a mysterious captive-bullet gun, or bolt. And his employers are being blackmailed into agreeing to manufacture plastic handguns that can't be detected by airport metal detectors. ...
Francis booklist
Bonecrack
At 18, Alessandro Rivera decides that the one thing he wants in life is to be champion jockey and ride Archangel in the Derby. Neil Griffon, filling in as trainer while his father recovers from a broken leg, is kidnapped, held at gunpoint, and forced to take Alessandro on as a jockey - at least until he can find a way to defeat Alessandro's father.... Break In
Champion steeplechase jockey Kit Fielding helps his twin sister investigate a smear campaign against her race horse trainer husband. He is hampered in his effort by a long-standing blood feud between his family and his brother-in-law's. He believes he can communicate telepathically with his sister.... Come To Grief
Sid Halley the main character in Odds Against and Whip Hand is back in the third and final installment of Dick Francis' Sid Halley series. About a year has passed since Whip Hand. Sid Halley is on his own again because Chico has gotten married. Now Sid is faced with a perplexing mystery, several 2-year-old colts and a young girl's pony have been found with a front foot severed at the ankle while they were still alive. These crimes have happened on moo... Comeback
British diplomat Peter Darwin returns to his hometown after a long absence to investigate a string of racehorse deaths and a homicide. The key to these dark events may be his own long-hidden memories. and he may be the next victim.
... Dead Cert
Jockey Alan York saw his best friend's fatal fall from the horse. He knew it had been no accident and put his own life in danger proving it.... Decider
Lee Morris is a 35 yr. old husband, father of six sons and architect whose passion and livelihood is revitalizing what he calls "ruins." His home (a remodeled "ruined" barn) is one day invaded by ghosts from his mother's past in the form of racecourse officials who want his help. From his mother, he inherited some shares in the Stratton Racecourse which is principally owned by the Stratton family. His mother, 40 years earlier, was once married into this ...
Dick Francis list of books
Enquiry
Jockey Kelly Hughes has his license suspended in a patently rigged Jockey Club enquiry. In his search for the truth, he finds love again in Roberta the daughter of the snooty trainer he trains for.... Flying Finish
Henry Grey, an English duke, becomes bored with his lifestyle and, much to his parents' disgust, take a job transporting race horses by air in addition to taking flying lessons and being a horse jockey on weekends. When employees of the horse transporting agency begin disappearing Grey inquires into their disappearances. Before long he finds himself tangled up in a scandal that could put his very life in danger, and finds that those he believed to be h... Forfeit
At first it looks like reporter Bert Checkov's fall from a seven-story building is an accident. Until horse racing columnist James Tyrone uncovers a blackmail scheme involving top race horses. Somebody is causing these horses to be withdrawn from their races within four days of the scheduled race, at which time all entry fees are forfeited. Ty knows Checkov is a drunk, but he also knows Checkov would not sell his column. His investigation brings him face... Hot Money
British gold tycoon Malcolm Pembroke is in a whole world of trouble. Not only has his nasty fifth wife just been gruesomely murdered, but he has moved back to the top of the police's suspect list after nearly dying in an attack staged to look like the suicide of a conscience-stricken wife-killer. Where to turn for help? To the person he trusts most in the world: his estranged son Ian, an amateur jockey and blookstock agent. But the investigation Ian unde... Odds Against
At one time Sid Halley was one of the best steeplechase jockeys in Great Britain. However, a fall from a horse changed his life forever; his left hand was stepped on by a horse, has extensive nerve and tendon damage, and cannot be surgically repaired. Now, Sid is devastated and horribly depressed; 6 months before the accident his wife left him and now he has lost his only other love, racing.
However, Sid receives a second chance; after working 2 y... Proof
At an annual party to celebrate the success of the racing season everything seemed to be running well to form. Until a runaway horsebox ploughed into the marquee. Witness to the terrible death and destruction, wine merchant Tony Beach knows it is just one of those tragic accidents. But when his expert advice is called on by the police over sub-standard alcohol in a local night club, connections start to click. In helping Gerard McGregor, a corporate i...
Dick Francis novels
Reflex
Jockey Philip Nore begins to suspect that a track photographer's death wasn't an accident. He becomes the killer's next target as he begins to solve the photographer's box of "puzzles".... Risk
The first line of Risk is: "Thursday, March 17, I spent the morning in anxiety, the afternoon in ecstasy, and the evening unconscious." Roland Britten is an accountant and part-time amateur steeplechase jockey. On March 17, just after winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup, he is abducted and kept in the sail locker of a sailing boat. His kidnappers ask for no ransom and give him no reason for his abduction. Roland escapes only to find that he is still a ta... Second Wind
British meteorologist Perry Stuart is invited by a colleague to go on a hurricane-hunting flight in the Caribbean. It's a very risky occupation for amateurs, and sure enough his plane is forced down. He's shipwrecked on an island alone except for a herd of cows. While there, just before he's rescued, he stumbles onto a smuggling operation involving uranium isotopes. Believing terrorists are building nuclear weapons at some secret laboratory, Stuart tries... Shattered
Gerard Logan is a British glassblower with his own shop and a taste for horse racing. His close friend, jockey Martin Stukely, is killed in a freak accident during a race, thus casting a bleak pall for the approaching new millennium Gerard had hoped to celebrate with his friend. Instead Gerard comes into possession of a videotape entrusted to him by Martin, and before Gerard can view the tape's contents it is stolen by a burglar.
When a separate grou... Smokescreen
Edward Lincoln, an action movie star, has just finished filming his new film Man in a Car on location in Spain. Upon returning he recieves a call from Nerissa, a old family friend, who is dying from cancer. Nerissa requests that Edward go to South Africa to check on her racehorses and find out why they are not running well.
Upon arriving in South Africa, Edward meets Nerissa's nephew from the US, Danilo. Upon initially meeting Danilo, Edward does ... Straight
Derek Franklin is a steeplechase jockey nearing the end of his career. He broke his left ankle in a fall from a horse during a steeplechase at Cheltenham a few days before and talked his doctor into putting him in a soft cast so his muscles would not atrophy. After returning from the doctors, he received a telephone call in which he was told that his brother Greville was in intensive care at St. Catherine's Hospital at Ipswich close to 2 hours away. No...
Dick Francis information
The Danger
A serial kidnapper seems to be targetting people connected to racing, including Alessia Cenci, one of the best woman jockeys in the world. Andrew Douglas travels from Italy to England to Washington, DC in search of the kidnapper.... The Edge
Tor Kelsey, undercover security operative for the British Jockey Club is on the case. Tor poses as waiter on a the Great Transcontinental Mystery Race Train. The train is mystery adventure across Canada where there are actors posing as horse owners and passengers and people are not what they seem. Their are various stops along the way where the owners will stop to watch their horses race.
Tor has been installed to spy upon Julius Appollo Filmer, w... To the Hilt
Alexander Kinoch loves his life painting on a remote Scottish mountain. When some thugs roll up and rough him up and Alexander is dragged into a real and violent world where millions of pounds are missing and a valuable racehorse is under threat and his stepfather is sick from worry, stress and harassed on all sides. With the help of some surprising friends, he takes on the hard boys and the jealousy of his step-sister to put matters right.... Whip Hand
Private Investigator Sid Halley is back in the sequel to Odds Against. After losing his bad left hand to the Howard Craye the villain in Odds Against, Sid has been fitted with a new mechanical hand. A few years have passed since the last book, old man Radnor (Sid's old boss) has died and Sid and his fellow PI Chico have gone freelance. However, it is hard to make ends meet on your own. Chico is teaching judo part-time and Sid is dealing in commodities... Wild Horses
While directing a horse-racing film, British filmmaker Thomas Lyon stumbles onto a 26-year-old unsolved murder. Despite threats, sabotage, and an assault on an elderly woman, he is determined to get to the bottom of the truth.
...
