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Reflex

dick francis

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Run Time = 9h 10min

With “intricate plotting and well-drawn characters” (Publishers Weekly), this gripping mystery delivered by an AudioFile Golden Voice “enthralls” (The New York Times). Jockey Philip Nore starts to suspect that a racetrack photographer’s deadly accident was actually murder. But his investigation uncovers dark secrets of corruption and blackmail — and time may be running out… “Aburst with action” (Los Angeles Times)!

Publisher Description
A jockey unravels nasty secrets of corruption, blackmail, and murder in this mystery from grand master of crime fiction Dick Francis. Longtime jockey Philip Nore is no hero. But when he begins to suspect that a racetrack photographer’s fatal accident was really murder, he sets out to discover the truth and trap the killer. Slowly, he unravels some nasty secrets of corruption, blackmail and murder—and unwittingly sets himself up as the killer’s next target …

“Reflex enthralls.”—The New York Times

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 7,1980
Literary awards
cwa silver dagger, 

This edition

Format
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published
October 4, 2005 by G.P. Putnam's Sons
ISBN
9780425206959
ASIN
0425206955
Language
English

More editions

About the author

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dick francis

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Dick Francis, CBE, FRSL (born Richard Stanley Francis) was a popular British horse racing crime writer and retired jockey.

Dick Francis worked on his books with his wife, Mary, before her death. Dick considered his wife to be his co-writer - as he is quoted in the book, "The Dick Francis Companion", released in 2003:
"Mary and I worked as a team. ... I have often said that I would have been happy to have both our names on the cover. Mary's family always called me Richard due to having another Dick in the family. I am Richard, Mary was Mary, and Dick Francis was the two of us together."

Praise for Dick Francis: 'As a jockey, Dick Francis was unbeatable when he got into his stride. The same is true of his crime writing' Daily Mirror '

Dick Francis's fiction has a secret ingredient - his inimitable knack of grabbing the reader's attention on page one and holding it tight until the very end' Sunday Telegraph '

Dick Francis was one of the most successful post-war National Hunt jockeys. The winner of over 350 races, he was champion jockey in 1953/1954 and rode for HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, most famously on Devon Loch in the 1956 Grand National.

On his retirement from the saddle, he published his autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write forty-three bestselling novels, a volume of short stories (Field of 13), and the biography of Lester Piggott.

During his lifetime Dick Francis received many awards, amongst them the prestigious Crime Writers' Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the genre, and three 'best novel' Edgar Allan Poe awards from The Mystery Writers of America. In 1996 he was named by them as Grand Master for a lifetime's achievement. In 1998 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2000. Dick Francis died in February 2010, at the age of eighty-nine, but he remains one of the greatest thriller writers of all time.

Series:
* Sid Halley Mystery
* Kit Fielding Mystery

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
31(31%)
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100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Redomic
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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One of my favorite Dick Francis stories.

There are two scenes that I particularly enjoyed: the first was when
Phillip Nore makes a gift of a candid photo of fellow amateur photographer George Millace to George's widow, and finds himself overwhelmed by her emotional reaction of joyful gratitude; the second is when he discovers the "Price" George had demanded from his blackmail victims.

Phillip then decides to demand the same price from George's killer.
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alejandorr
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I never tire of the horse racing based plots of these novels. Even though the subject matter is somewhat the same, each plot line is fresh and different. This is the kind of book you can sit down to read and finish in once sitting. The end seems to come very quickly but without leaving you feeling like so aspect of the plot was missed.
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Junniorr
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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When I was in elementary and middle school, my mother volunteered reviewing audiobooks for an audiobook magazine so she was always listening to books on tape in the car. My favorites were the Dick Francis books. I loved horses, and I loved mysteries.

Still do. It’s good to see I still consider Francis a solid mystery writer. The protagonist, Phillip, is very likable, and Francis writes in a manner that is straightforward without being dry.
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SuperSmashBobby
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Another good puzzler from Dick Francis. Unpopular but talented racing photographer George Millace dies abruptly in an auto accident. Soon after, jump jockey Philip Nore is told to throw a race by the horse's owner. The connection between those two events takes the whole book to resolve. Along the way Philip interacts with a number of interesting characters: from his estranged grandmother who has despised him from his birth; to a powerful racing Steward, Lord (pure as the driven) Snow; to a younger sister he didn't know existed; to Clare, daughter of one of his childhood caretakers; to Igor den Rengen, a ruthless aspiring member of the Stewards, and others. A painful but satisfying conclusion waits for our protagonist.
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Takasugi3647
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Phillip Nore, jockey and amateur photographer, is drawn into solving the puzzles left by a professional photographer whose death in a car crash might not have been an accident. Dick Francis is always a good read, but this one is really special and probably the best Francis I have read so far. Its many threads are successfully drawn together in a story that held me there right up to the end and kept me guessing. It may be the perfect book to start with for anyone new to the author and interested in trying him out.
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freddo_o
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Former jockey to the British Royal family, Dick Francis writes fast-moving mysteries centering on horses or steeple-chasing. Reflex follows jockey Philip Nore as he investigates the circumstances of a racetrack photographer's death. Was it an accident or murder?

On this third reading over the years since its 1981 publication, it still remains my favorite of all his work, with Break In as next best.

For middle school and up
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Moon321305
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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This one struck a chord with me. One of the main character's name is Clare, spelled the correct way! Tough childhood and chosen family found along the way.

One of my favorites so far in the HAWGYK (Horsin' Around Will Get You Killed: The Dick Francis Challenge.
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