I like reading these brief book reviews. I'd like to know if anyone is actually reading them. I have few friends, so I'm counting on you, friends. This Dick Francis book was just like the rest of them: easily read and centered around horse racing. This one was set in Norway. Dad gave me a bunch of Dick Francis books, and the pile is dwindling. I have finished all of them so far, so I can recommend these fiction books. I won't buy any more though, after I finish the pile. I'd like to read some other books to, ya know.

Quick, easy, entertaining read that I was only able to predict half correctly. I enjoyed the very britishness of the narrator and Francis' writing style is sometimes witty while always direct and to the point. The fact that the Norwegian cold became a character unto itself speaks volumes about his writing style. Enjoyable.

A bit slow to start and stayed that way but good final third. I thought I’d read all of Francis’ early stuff but apparently not.

Going with 5 stars because even though this doesn't have the clever level of plotting of ones like Whip Hand or Hot Money, Francis really manages to pull off a great Nordic Noir style murder mystery here. Because most of the action takes place in Norway and our hero is an English outside it allows for everyone to seem a plausible villain which helps to achieve the classic Christie setup without sacrificing character. On top of that we have almost no romantic sub plot which aids our complete focus on the mystery in hand and the wintry Norwegian setting really comes to life.

There also a few points that I personally love: where an old book (this is from 1973) presents something as surprising/exotic that is now more commonplace. At one point our characters enjoy "gravlacks" something that must have been pretty much unknown in the UK at the time, but these days Gravlax isn't an unfamiliar term at all. There's also Lillehammer referenced, presumably a lot more obscure before the comedy series of the same name was created.

On top of that there's a reference to boxer Henry Cooper's punching bag, a man who is probably a complete unknown to most people now, and the swimmer Matthew Webb who was probably on the very edge of still being a household name back then.

Dick Francis is one of my favourite authors, but Slay Ride just didn't do much for me. The Norwegian setting left me cold (sorry), the plot was rather obvious, and the whole thing was a setup to justify the bad pun in the title. The relationships were not as well-drawn as in some later Francis novels, and there was one scene with two people dancing that was just bizarre.

Even so, the protagonist is stubborn and likeable, if not memorable, and there was enough action and danger to keep me reading. Francis's worst is still pretty good.

I have trouble with British writing. Too many words or phrases I don’t understand. This had a British jockey racing in Oslo, Norway. This just added some Norwegian jargon to the British. I did enjoy some of the characters, but I was confused as to the actual reasons for the death of the British jockey. Power and money seemed to be more important in this book than the actual characters.
This was OK but I probably won’t read anymore books by this author. I read this one because it was the author for the month of November in my book club. I’m not into horse racing, but I’m glad I tried this author. He’s written many mystery books dealing with horse racing.

I grabbed this from the used bookstore. Buying Francis, which I don't own, is a general rule. It makes for a lot of re-reading, always enjoyable. Finding a book by a favourite author you haven't read before is always fun. This book is 3.5 stars for me. It is set in Norway, which gives it a unique flavour. It is par for the course, Francis, but it could have been one of his best. The mastermind villain is one of his best, and when he shows up late in the book, it introduces a moral complexity that Francis, unfortunately, does not dive into. The setting of Norway gives it an interesting flavour, but the plotting is straightforward. Good stuff, but I think it could have been great.

Another classic Dick Francis, set in Norway, with a Jockey Club investigator following up the disappearance of a British jockey. A fast-paced narrative leading to a violent ending.

Dick Francis found a goldmine in his thrillers about the British horseracing scene. After a while they became formulaic. This is one of his earliest, before the formula became set.

"“How do you solve a crime?” “Um… you think what you might have done if you’d been the crook, and then you look to see if that’s what he did. And sometimes it is.” “No one else solves crimes like David,” Arne said."

Arne Kristiensen works security for the Oslo track where jockey Bob Springer was last seen. David Cleveland is a horseracing investigator from the UK. When Bob went missing, so did the daily receipts from the track so many believe that the two things are tied together.

This is first, about deductive process; second, about being a thriller (our hero, David, almost get a watery grave in the beginning); third, about the contrasts between Norwegian society and its English counterpart; and, fourth, about mystery.

It was interesting and worked well for me, but it was a big step away from the actual horseracing that is the background for almost all the author’s subsequent work.

3.5

Gave this 4 because he strays from his standard formula in this one. No physically or emotionally handicapped protagonist, and the burgeoning love interest is off stage for the most part. It takes place in Norway for much of the book and it involves geology (I'm a retired earth-scientist) in addition to a fresh venue of horse racing. Although one of the villains is pretty obvious early on, the rest falls to hand in solid puzzle form.

When a British jockey named Richard Sherman disappears from a racecourse in Norway, he leaves behind a pregnant wife and a huge mystery. At the same time Sherman went missing, so did sixteen thousand kroner--the day's take at the racecourse where Sherman had been riding that afternoon. Sherman was last seen near the room where the money was inexplicably left unguarded, and the assumption is that he has run off with it.

But how?

Norwegian investigators have drawn a blank; neither Sherman nor the money have surfaced and there's no record of him leaving the country. Accordingly, the racetrack officials call in David Cleveland, an investigator from the Jockey Club in England. Cleveland pairs up with a Norwegian investigator named Arne Kristiansen, who tells David that he hopes the Englishman can pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat.

Almost as soon as Cleveland arrives in Norway, however, it becomes very clear that someone doesn't want him poking around, and the deeper he digs, the more dangerous things become. But Cleveland is a typical Dick Francis protagonist, and he's not about to back down, irrespective of the possible consequences.

This is a fairly typical novel from Dick Francis. There's lots of intrigue, danger and action. In this case there's not much romance, although at one point our intrepid hero causes a woman to have an orgasm just by dancing with her! With that kind of talent, it's hard to imagine that even the most diabolical criminals will escape his reach for long. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Good read, some violence, but quite decent over all. Requires more from the reader than a mindless, summer read, but an excellent, by-the-fire on-a-long-winter-evening mystery read. I actually read two of his books this weekend and will probably read more as time goes by. Not really enriching in any way, but sometimes you've just got to take a break-Dick Francis provides a good break and another world with its own issues (not yours!!) to move into for a while.