Daniel Roke an Australian who has an established stud farm takes on an undercover job as a stable boy in England. His job is to figure out how horse are being doped, but beating all lab tests. Dan must transform himself into a shady character and work at brutal stable whose owner isn't above beating the workers. My favorite Dick Francis book so far

A Spectacular, Tension Filled, Fast Paced, Read that I enjoyed even more the second time!

Daniel Roke feels trapped. His parents had both drowned in a sailing accident when he was eighteen, his two sisters and brother were younger still. Since then he has been running a very successful Australian stud farm in order to support himself and his siblings but he's dead bored of it.
Then one morning a man who calls himself the Earl of October and offers him a job to go to England as a corruptible stable lad to investigate a doping scandal.
n  "Can I make you understand how concerned my colleagues and I are over these undetectable cases of doping? I own several race horses mostly -steeplechasers- and my family for generations have been lovers and supportive of racing. The health of the sport means more to me, and people like me, then I can possibly say....n

Daniel still remains unconvinced that he can afford to leave his responsibilities to chance. Not easily deterred Lord October has come prepared, offering him £20,000.
n  "I'll tell you what you would do with it, if you like. You would pay the fees of the medical school your sister Belinda has her heart set on. You would send your younger sister, Helen, to art school, as she wants. You would put enough aside for your 13 year old brother, Philip, to become a lawyer, if he still has a mind of it when he grows up."n
And with that, Daniel agrees to the job.

The first stable he's been assigned is with Inskip, a hard, no nonsense trainer.
Unfortunately Daniel is finding nothing helpful in his investigations. Daniel needs some way to get moved to Humber's stable, a seedy, mean trainer, but must keep up appearances to do it.
Then, by chance, Lord October's promiscuis daughter lands Daniel in hot water, leaving him with more than a bad taste in his mouth but the perfect reason to move to Humber's.
n  "Very well he said heavily. I'll tell Inskip that you are to be dismissed. And I'll tell him it is because you pestered Patricia.
"Right."
He looked at me coldly. "You can write me reports. I don't want to see you again."
I watched him walk away strongly up the gully. I didn't know whether or not he really believed me anymore that I had done what Patty said; but I did know that he needed to believe it. The alternative, the truth, was so much worse. What father wants to discover that his beautiful 18 year-old daughter is a lying sl*t?n

After two months of less than deplorable conditions at Humber's, including
Adams, an owner, who beats and humiliates the lads for his own entertainment, and no signs of doping. Then a horse returns to the yard from a seemingly routine swim in the ocean. He's completely unhinged, needing daily sedation, with suspicious burns on his legs. Something is very bad happened to him and Daniel won't stop until he finds out what. He also knows that if Humble and Adams discover what he's doing they won't hesitate to stop him. Permanently.

I've read hundreds of books and Dick Francis remains my favorite author.
For Kicks is absolutely riveting! My heart was in my throat and I had to remind myself to breathe. And the world disappeared. The plot is swift and comes to a stunning conclusion. A must read!

Very good book. Really enjoyed it.

The positives: I like how observant and introspective the protagonist, Danny Roke, is. Working different stables gave him different insights on how the stablehands are being treated. He reflects on his workers back in Australia. He wonders if they respect him when he hears some of the other lads talk shit behind the bosses back. Disguise as a peasant hoping to infiltrate a drug ring, Roke works for multiple bosses. Each of the bosses don't engage in dirty field work that he does at home. Roke is a good manager and figures that workers will respect you if you do the same shit they do. He views them more as "helpers" than "employees". Kudos for him for questioning himself on this, and he does it on more than one occasion.

However, this book is not a guidance for managerial improvement. It deals with a story and like typical Dick Francis clues are not going to be bouncing off the walls. It is realistic as if you're actually working the case.

This is my third Francis novel, I am use to the slow pace. However, this one I enjoyed the least as it was a slow and grueling read. When I was a little more than halfway done, I shouted "IS THIS GOING ANYWHERE?". There were no new leads and Roke is working himself and taking abuse like a crack whore. Why do this for a mystery/scandal that seems to be non-existent? So little evidence of doping and now he is still working when it is not racing season! So there will be no news of doped horses. Depression to say the least.


I find the protagonist lacking common sense. He still has his mail delivered even though he's undercover. This could really jeopardize his mission and safety. Although he rips up any letter he receives, I think this is risky. He dumps the remnants into one single trash can at the post office. He doesn't scatter them throughout the town in different trash cans.

He also keeps his reports underneath his mattress in a room with 8 other guys. These parts I was rolling my eyes


Nothingness for 60 pages


Roke is hired by a Mr. October to go undercover and find the culprit drugging horses. October has two daughters, and one of them gets around the stable lads. She tried her moves on Roke, even going as far as stripping bare in front of him. He refused her advances and she claims he will be sorry.
The next day she goes to Daddy all teary-eyed and claims she was sexually harassed by him. Dad acts like dad and beats his ass but doesn't fire Roke, but he is off the property.

Fast forward to the end of the book and when Roke (who now is clean-shaven). October has his daughters in the room and introduces them to the "real" Roke and explains why he had to go UC. Roke's false accuser is embarrassed. She says sorry and Roke waves it off as not a big deal. October is shocked by this, as I am too. It seems Roke wants to impress the teenagers, by being in the "cool" crowd.

I am confused about the age of our protagonist. Sometimes he speaks like an old man, earlier on in the book he truly reflects on October having an understanding that his daughter is a hoe. Roke suspects that deep down he knows the fact but does his best to repress it.

Another thing that I really don't understand is when the £10000 paycheck comes in. This is AFTER the big boss fight, AFTER the part Roke saves someones life, and AFTER other bullshit... ROKE TEARS UP THE DAMN CHECK!!!!

WTF buddy? The cream of the crop is his reason why he refused the money. He did the job "For Kicks", like the book title!!! Clever!!! NOT!!!!

This book does not know when to stop. It turns out the main bad guy pushed his mom out the window. Is mom fell out the window and the uncle always suspected his nephew. There was a police interrogation couple pages back and it seems like they were realistic. Now Francis is discrediting the officers I read about as actual by-the-book cops. Nothing was done about this obvious matricide. This is a middle finger to me. Ofc it is bad guys being bad.

Overall this was a novel I couldn't wait to get over with. If you want a Dick Francis book with a protagonist you can relate, check out Come to GriefCome to Grief with Sid Halley.

FOR KICKS - Ex
Francis, Dick - 3rd book

Proprietor of a stud farm in Australia's Snowy Mountains or muck-raking stable boy in Yorkshire? Danny Roke decides on the latter. It is the change of scene and the challenge that pushes Danny undercover, on the scent of a suspected racehorse dope scandal.

I loved this book. The conflict of the protagonists pride added an interesting element to the story.

Highly Recommended

Another winner from Dick Francis.
Once again, a self effacing hero in an untenable situation, a survivor and an inspiration.

Back to excellence in the Dick Francis re-read. This main character is much more enjoyable than the last, because he's a stable owner masquerading as a stable hand to crack the case and therefore experiences a struggle maintaining his role and faces a lot of self-doubt. It's less of an automatic win for our unflappable hero.

There's still a lot of Scalzi type wish fulfillment here, where Francis shows us how he'd like the world to work by having it fall into place for his main character, but without being insufferable about it. It's how good people can make things better, not how things would be better if everyone listened to the smartest, snarkiest people.

Another vigorous mystery from Dick Francis. Kept me reading. Great plot. But the real gem for me was the narration by Tony Britton. His rendition of an Australian accent was to me, perfect. A pleasure to listen to.

I've started a Dick Francis kick. (Ha, I just see play on name of book...) Anyway, as I see them at library and/or acquire them, I'm reading them. This is one of the first ones he wrote and I really enjoyed it. The clarity of sight of his lead character, the development of the personalities of everyone, they all add a richness to a well-crafted mystery. (The butler did it.)(jk)

I've been on a Dick Francis reading spree while on vacation and he never disappoints. In this one an Australian stud owner goes undercover as a disreputable stable lad in order to discover how a dozen horses have been doctored and run better than they're expected to. A truly psychopathic horse owner has discovered that he can make horses so afraid of fire that they will bolt. The comparison of different stables and the conditions under which stable lads work is quite palpable.

I'm sure I've read this in the past, but it all seemed new and exciting to me. As always, Francis creates a likable main character who has hidden depths of strength and a strong moral code. In this case Dan has ended up caring for his younger siblings by owning a horse farm in Australia. When he is asked to come to England to investigate suspected racehorse doping, he jumps at the chance to spread his wings a little, despite the potential danger. Undercover as a stable lad, he is able to discover the simple yet devious plan and thwart it, not without many difficulties along the way. Loved the main characters, and the mystery was interesting without being too complicated. Unfortunately, however, there were multiple typos that distracted; I counted at least 6 misspellings.

No one writes a scumbag villain like Dick Francis.