One of the most enduring series of books are those written by the legendary Dick Francis and then, in more recent years, by his equally talented son, Felix.
There have been many who have tried to write novels based around our wonderful sport, be they other famous jockeys, trainers or owners but there is only one name that really hits the mark time after time. Now on sale is the latest novel, “ICED”, set in St Moritz, home of the Cresta Run and horse racing on the ice of a frozen lake.
This is the 54th book in the series which started way back in 1962 and although some may appear a little dated with the way the world has moved on, they are certainly no less enjoyable. Many are based in the horse racing world while some only touch on it and others are just out-and-out Thrillers, with a capital T.
While Dick Francis started this enduring series, Felix co-wrote four with his father from 2007, taking up the reins in his own right for the last ten years. So, for those perhaps not quite familiar with them and looking for an excellent read, I thought I’d run quickly through them. The ratings I have attributed to each are from my own personal enjoyment but others, of course, will have different opinions.
Dead Cert: Jockeys were warned not to win races. Three died and others were frightened. After his friend is killed when the sure-footed Admiral falls, one finds a coil of wire had been nailed above the fence and decides to fight back. My favourite book of the entire series. 10/10.
Nerve: A real rollercoaster ride where jockeys seem jinxed. It’s made worse by the barbed comments of a television sports presenter but one jockey, who it is claimed has lost his nerve, tries to uncover the truth, risking his own life into the bargain. Truly nerve wracking. 9/10.
For Kicks: An owner of an Australian stud farm goes undercover as a stable lad in Yorkshire to expose some dodgy dealings. Is it doping or something far worse? Intensely gritty and certainly one of the best. 10/10.
Odds Against: Retired jockey, Sid Halley, is asked to investigate when some strange goings on at Seabury racecourse are linked to an unscrupulous and extremely vicious property developer. 9/10.
Flying Finish: An aristocratic amateur jockey throws up a promising career to join a bloodstock transport business shipping horses around the world. A horse unexpectedly dies in transit, a colleague disappears and he then discovers the two men who had the job before him also went missing in strange circumstances. 8/10.
Blood Sport: A top investigator travels to Kentucky to look for a kidnapped stallion, the third in as many years. The trip soon turns into one of blackmail and murder. 7/10.
Forfeit: A racing journalist is told about a rival giving deliberately losing tips in his own paper moments before the informant falls to his death. He then stumbles on something that threatens the life of himself, his wife and the sport he loves. 8/10.
Enquiry: A top jockey loses his licence when the authorities believe he deliberately lost a race. No one believes that the problem was with the horse and he sets about finding how it was done. His reputation and career are in a mess and now his life is endangered the closer he gets to an answer. 7/10.
Rat Race: A taxi-plane pilot becomes embroiled in a fraud scheme but all is not what it seems, even after the bomb in his plane explodes moments after he makes a forced landing. 9/10.
Bonecrack: An immensely rich maniac wants his son to be a Derby winning jockey and will stop at nothing to ensure the spoilt youngster rides the favourite. He won’t let the trainer or present jockey get in the way and resorts to extreme measures to ensure he succeeds. 8/10.
Smokescreen: An actor films a harrowing scene in a car where he is expected to die. On location in South Africa he looks into the suddenly poor running of a friends horses and barely escapes with his life as he gets close to an answer. Finally he finds himself in a car for real where he is expected to die. 7/10.
Slay-Ride: A jockey club investigator is sent to Norway to help with a small investigation into missing money. Almost drowned in a fjord soon after his arrival before a body turns up he quickly realises there is far more to it. 8/10.
Knock Down: A bloodstock agent is attacked by thugs out to ruin his business, but why? When he discovers all is not as it seems in the auction sales his life becomes imperilled. 7/10.
High Stakes: A racehorse owner wins a race and knows his trainer has just cheated him so takes his horses elsewhere but things go quickly from bad to worse, revealing the truly ugly side of cheating and revenge. 8/10.
In The Frame: An artists cousin is arrested for the brutal murder of his wife. A painting has been stolen and another is missing from the smouldering remains of another house. Australia is the backdrop for an intriguing mystery thriller. 9/10.
Risk: An amateur jockey wins the Gold Cup and is then abducted for no apparent reason and threatened with extreme violence if he doesn’t meet their strange demands. Unable to reveal his ordeal he devises a plan to fight back. 7/10.
Trial Run: A freezing Moscow and the KGB are the background to a mysterious threat to a leading candidate for the 1980 Olympic games to be held there. 6/10.
Whip Hand: Disabled former jockey, Sid Halley, is back. Working for a private detective agency he is called in when crooks take a firm grip of the racing world. 9/10.
Reflex: A racing photographer who specialised in making jockeys look bad is dead. No one cares, but his home is raided during the funeral yet the thieves can’t find what they are looking for. A brilliantly developed mystery with twists at every turn. 9/10.
Twice Shy: A unique book in two distinct halves. A computer algorithm throws up certain profits on backing the horses. The trouble is a villain will kill to get his hands on it. 7/10.
Banker: A merchant banker invests in a stallion. All goes well until it is nobbled and blame falls the wrong way. Taught and cleverly constructed. 8/10.
The Danger: A specialist in dealing with kidnappers is brought in when people connected with racing go missing but things start to go wrong. 7/10.
Proof: A wine merchant is enlisted to help the police with an unusual robbery. Death soon follows when he discovers things which only he could know are not as they should be. 9/10.
Break In: A newspaper magnate starts a hate campaign against a trainer who Kit Fielding has a long running feud with. The problem is his sister is married to the trainer so Kit must try to put his feelings aside to help. 7/10.
Bolt: Kit Fielding returns when his leading owner starts having her horses needlessly killed and her elderly husband’s business is being threatened. Are the two linked and can Kit get to the bottom of it. 7/10.
Hot Money: A millionaire’s fifth wife is brutally murdered. With four former wives and nine children the killer is someone he knows, but who. Only the one son he trusts can find out, if they don’t kill him first. 7/10.
The Edge: Set on a race train across Canada, an undercover investigator must find a way to get enough details to convict a rich and ruthless passenger. 8/10.
Straight: A real mystery set in the world of semi-precious stones and fascinating gadgets when the hero inherits his dead brothers’ life, business and enemies. 9/10.
Longshot: A struggling writer is employed to write the biography of an unpopular trainer. He slowly gets to know the family but when a stable girl is found dead he starts to delve into the why and the who only to find his own life in danger. 8/10.
Comeback: A lowly diplomat returns to his home town only to find the local vet is being blamed for a string of valuable racehorse deaths. Caught up in it he helps to discover the truth and the criminal truly responsible. 7/10.
Driving Force: The owner of a successful racehorse transport business is stunned when a body is found in one of his fleet. It seems he was transporting something of his own and a device is then found under one of the boxes. He has to find out who and why before he is stopped. 8/10.
Decider: A series of accidents befall Stratton Park racecourse of which an architect has a few shares. Half the family shareholders want to sell and resent his opinions but is one of them behind the problems and ready to kill for the massive profit which selling would bring. 9/10.
Wild Horses: A film director is making a racing film in Newmarket when he learns something by accident. To reveal it would be highly dangerous but to conceal the secret would be wrong. 7/10.
Come To Grief: Sid Halley is back in a gruesome tale of brutally mutilated horses. His friend, a TV presenter, even makes a programme about it to try and catch the perpetrator who happens to be closer than you think. 8/10.
To The Hilt: An artist in the Scottish Highlands is attacked and his attackers demand to know where “it” is, before leaving him for dead. He learns from his stepfather that millions are missing from the family funds. The thugs and the person behind them then return. 7/10.
10lb Penalty: A young jockeys career is broken when he is falsely accused of taking drugs. In solace he half heartedly agrees to help his politician father get elected in a by-election only to find that they are both likely to end up dead. 7/10.
Field of 13: A series of short stories in various settings, some intriguing, some cleverly devised. Great for those without time for a full length novel. 6/10.
Second Wind: A weather forecaster caught in a hurricane discovers a worldwide conspiracy by accident then has to live long enough to reveal it. 7/10.
Shattered: A glass-blower is thought to have priceless information and thugs want it from him. The problem is he doesn’t have it and they won‘t accept that. Cleverly constructed thriller. 9/10.
Under Orders: Sid Halley is called in to investigate an owners’ permanent losing streak just before three deaths at Cheltenham. Is it race fixing or something far more dangerous? 8/10.
Dead Heat: A top chef in Newmarket is seriously ill, along with 24 of his dinner guests. His restaurant is closed, his reputation shattered and a court case is looming yet he knew he did nothing wrong. So who did and why? 8/10.
Silks: A defence barrister is persuaded to defend the champion jockey, accused of murdering a rival with a pitchfork. Could it have something to do with a lenient sentence on an arrogant evil doer who may or may not be out for revenge? 8/10.
Even Money: A young bookmaker is having a torrid time at the races as the favourites romp home. Then the father he long believed to be dead turns up with a dire warning moments before being stabbed to death. 9/10.
Crossfire: A wounded army officer returns to his home, a top racing stable, only to find the finances on the edge of ruin. Things are far from what they seem and no one will tell him why. One of the best of the series. 10/10.
Gamble: A former Grand National winning jockey returns to Aintree with a friend who is shot dead. He finds a cryptic note in his friends pocket and then learns he is the beneficiary in the will and unwillingly becomes the next in line to be shot. 8/10.
Bloodline: A race commentator calls a race in which his sister deliberately loses and only he notices how she did it. He confronts her only for her to commit suicide a short while later. What led to this drastic action and was it really suicide after all? 9/10.
Refusal: Sid Halley has retired but is begged to investigate some possible race fixing, the day before the person asking is found dead. Sid’s daughter then goes missing and he receives instructions to find no evidence of cheating. Big mistake! 10/10.
Damage: Jeff Hinkley, BHA investigator, is on duty at Cheltenham when he witnesses a murder. Is it linked to a doping scandal? Within days more horses are testing positive but no one knows how it’s done. 9/10.
Front Runner: Hinkley is asked to meet a top jockey who has been losing races to order and is nearly killed himself. The jockey is found dead soon after and Hinkley believes the problem runs much deeper. 10/10.
Triple Crown: Hinkley goes undercover as a groom in the USA to find a mole in their Anti-Corruption Agency where murder and shady dealings abound in a quest to win the Triple Crown. 8/10.
Pulse: A unique book in the series with a big surprise early on. A doctor is obsessed with a nameless dead man at Cheltenham racecourse and only their own death will protect a secret. A book which is appreciated better when read a second time. 7/10.
Crisis: The Derby favourite is killed in a fire which looks accidental until a body is found in the ashes. A cleverly constructed thriller which will leave you guessing until the end. 9/10.
Guilty Not Guilty: A volunteer steward’s wife meets a violent death and her brother points the finger firmly at him. He in turn blames the brother but no one believes him as he loses his job, home and friends. The brother is as convinced of his guilt as he is of the brother. With only two possible suspects who is guilty and who not guilty. One of the best in the series with a twist you won’t see coming. 10/10.
And finally, the latest release;
Iced: Exceptional characterisation of the leading figure, a young jockey whose career is systematically destroyed. In St Moritz years later for the Cresta Run he is drawn back into the racing world by his former employer with deadly consequences. Brilliantly told in two superbly interlinked narratives of past and present it will leave you guessing until the end. 9/10.
What more could you ask for in your Christmas stocking?
