I've read three Dick Francis books before this one and enjoyed all of them. I listened to this one on audio and had to go through it twice because I didn't notice what was happening the first time. I suppose you could say that there wasn't anything in the story that caught my interest. The story is about a dull movie star who goes to South Africa to do some promotion. There is an inheritance involved, and a will, of course. Tired mystery clichés. I'm afraid that making the main character a movie star doesn't automatically make a book interesting. I do enjoy Francis's general writing style. This one is just not interesting for me. Maybe if I read it instead of listening to it. The reader was pretty annoying. Imagine the Monty Python crew reading a book with no humor in it.

Another great Dick Francis book. Top holiday reading. I picked the bad guy this time, and learned about gold mines.

A Dick Francis book set in South Africa, written in 1972. Like many of his books, sets off at a sprint and does not draw breath until the end. Great stuff.

Makes you stay in your seat!

Dick.Francis is always good. This book moved along well and kept me guessing. Not so much who done it but would he last!

This was the first Dick Francis book I read and I was hooked. All the books have something to do with the world of horse racing since the author was formerly a jockey. They always involve great bodily harm to the "hero". Some are better than others and occasionally the subject matter is adult. I can't rate them individually since I read most of them many years ago but my overall rating of his writing is 4 stars. He is getting quite old and has started to co-author with his son. I find the quality undiminished.

A movie star is asked by his godmother to check on her string of horses in South Africa and soon finds himself the target of a murderer.

My favorite Dick Francis novel

This would make a great movie, with one of the up and coming Bond actors. Unlike most of Francis' novels, the racing is secondary to the plot. It does put our hero in the right spot for the action to start.

Francis at his best

Francis always gives great value. His in-depth insights into the characters are a!ways fascinating. I enjoy learning about different skil!s with each book.

My first Dick Francis novel. I had avoided him for many years because he is always described as "that guy who writes about horse-racing." That's misleading. In this case at least* the racing provides the initial plot point and some color, but isn't the focus.

A wealthy old woman, recently diagnosed with a fatal illness, wants to find out why her horses are suddenly performing so poorly -- she wants to resolve this before leaving the horses to her heir. Rather than hiring a detective, she asks a close friend with a background in the stables to investigate. The friend, Edward Lincoln, is a successful actor and reasonably bright guy but knows nothing about solving mysteries, or about South Africa, where he is being sent. However, he is a pleasant protagonist to spend time with.

If you are the sort of reader who likes mysteries for the puzzle, don't start your Francis-reading with this one. It's more of a thriller, with only Lincoln's lack of detective skills keeping him in suspense. Whodunit's so clear that my only doubt was whether Francis was tricking me. I would recommend this more to those interested in psychology and character interactions.


*disclaimer: I've since read The Edge, in which horse information is more pervasive.

Listened.

A nice comfortable (and not overly horsified) mystery novel.

This novel is a change from Dick Francis' usual style because the main character is an actor! Interesting read.