For me Francis is always a treat

Along with Agatha Christie Dock Francis is the author I most re-read. I only didn’t enjoy the behaviour of his hero in one book enough to dislike it and I have probably re-read about 1/3 of his books.

This is one I like very much. I didn’t intentionally re-read it but having bought it on sale it came up in my queue and I enjoyed it a second time. I discovered Mr. Francis in my late teens/ early 20’s and 20 plus years later I’m still loving him.

The mystery as (almost) always is something to do with Steeplechase racing. It stars (as often) a jockey. As always he has a casual attitude and somewhat surprising to himself (but not those around him) an indomitable will. The villain (as always) is vicious bordering on sadistic (there is a bonus twist here though). There is a (as not always) romance angle.

If you know the formula your either in or your out. I can’t imagine Francis leaves a lot of indecisive readers (he is nothing if not consistent). If you don’t know the formula and you like a good mystery I would say you owe it to yourself to check this out. Another solid entry. 3 stars on the scale that includes Moby Dick. 4 stars on the scale of bestseller thrillers.

I think the reason I love Kit Fielding (the main character in this book and it’s sequel Bolt) as much as I do is his relationship with his sister. There is nothing more endearing in a main character than demonstrating real platonic love and loyalty. Solving the mystery and beating the criminals is all good as well, but that’s my favourite part of these two.

Mostly well written enough to keep me intrigued, but incredibly unfocused and with a complicated yet uninteresting plot which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Also puts a lot of focus on the phrase "Holy wow" for some reason?

I recently reread this title after a 20 year gap, and found it just as entertaining as the first time (even if I didn't remember the plot in detail). I think Kit Fielding is one of his best characters, too bad there are only two books with this character. Great characters, compelling plot, good triumphs over evil, and he gets the girl. What could be better?

Second read. This DF book has less to do with races, then newspaper slander and blackmail. I enjoyed the racing better than the multilayered plotting to stop a villain that loans $ then forces the borrower to sell their business to him. Also kinda disappointed that after being both beaten and starred and seriously threatened that Kit seems to easily forgive. Not my style. Still a well thought plot.

Máte rádi detektivky / thrillery plné mrtvol, kdy s vámi autor točí jak na ruském kole, několikrát vás navede k pachateli, aby nakonec vrahem byl úplně někdo jiný než zahradník? Já ano.
A i přesto dávám Dicku Francisovi pět hvězd. I bez (lidských) mrtvol je to napínavé jak kšandy! Žralok mě úplně pohltil, hltala jsem stránky, abych zjistila, kdo za tím stojí.

Highly enjoyable, one of the better ones I have read. This is the "Princess Diaries meets the Hatfields and McCoys" one.
Christmas and Holly Fielding, fraternal twins born on Christmas Day.
Good plot--super cool jockey brother comes to aid of sister whose business is under attack.
In this one, the Hero Does NOT get the shit kicked out of him or get beaten on the head with a blunt instrument. HOWEVER, he does get stabbed and electrocuted.

I had read a whole bunch of Dick Francis novels back in high school, but hadn’t revisited them for about 25 years. Now that I’ve been reading a whole bunch of old mysteries, I thought I would try these as a contrast with the Golden Age stuff. And they are kind of silly—the characters are very two dimensional, the hero is so stoic and brave, the villains very nasty, the psychology really basic. Also, Francis has a weird fascination with exactly what people do at their jobs that can slow things down. But, when you get a good one, they are also really compelling—taut, propulsive, and satisfyingly constructed. The writing is lean, and Francis is able to describe people, and horses, well and economically, and the racing stuff is always fun to read, it’s so visceral. The Kit Fielding novels I remember being some of my favorites of his when I got a whole bunch of them from our town’s little bookmobile, and coming back to them was really very enjoyable.

Jockey, Christmas "Kit" Fielding, and his twin sister, Holly, were born on Christmas Day. I'm not sure how you get Kit from Christmas but who am I to judge. Kit comes to the rescue of Holly and her husband, horse trainer, Bobby. There is a whole long history between Kit & Holly's family and Bobby's family as both of their grandfathers were trainers who hated each other and that hatred seeped down to each generation and Holly & Bobby's marriage did not thaw relations between the two families at all, except with Kit. When Bobby is being bad mouthed in the local paper about not being able to pay his bills, there is a rush of owners who come to take their horses out of his stables. But where is the information coming from? It turns out that Bobby's phone was tapped by the newsmen and that Bobby wasn't even the target of their poisoned pen, it was his father, Maynard. But they couldn't tap his phone so they did the next best thing. Maynard has cheated a good number of people out of money by pretending to help them out of a jam by loaning them money and then, almost instantly, saying that he needed it back and since their pockets were pinched at the moment, he'd take their prized but ailing racehorse, failing company, or shares in a local newspaper in exchange for paying off the loan. No sooner did he take these things then the fortunes change - the racehorse is no longer ill, the company no longer failing and Maynard sells them for a huge profit. He is currently under consideration for knighthood and the newspaper, where he was trying to use his shares to stage a hostile takeover, is printing a smear campaign in retaliation to ruin his chances of getting knighted. Kit is instrumental in figuring out all the details and has produced a tv documentary, with the help of the obligatory love interest, Danielle, that will be the final nail in Maynard's coffin, but he is willing to exchange it in order to see Bobby's business made whole again, especially since there is a baby on the way. Although he suffers some bumps and bruises, which are also obligatory for a Dick Francis novel, he managed to achieve his objective and stop the bad guys from ruining Bobby's business, get damages paid to Bobby from the papers and force Maynard to forgive his son's debts. Another enjoyable book from Francis.

You will fall in love with Dick Francis' character, Kit Fielding. The first of 2 books with Kit Fielding (the second being Bolt), the author has created an intelligent, clever, funny, and lovable hero who helps family and friends against a blackmailer. I think this is Francis at his best.

Steeplechase jockey Kit Fielding has numerous close calls both on and off the track. Things gets really dangerous as a fued between his family and his sister-in-law heats up.

Years ago I read a few mysteries by this author that I enjoyed, but not being a horse person I stopped at some point. I only picked this one up because some of my GR friends read and liked it; I'm really glad I did. Sure there are plenty of horses in this story - the MC is a jockey and his sister and brother-in-law are trainers. But the book is really about family, feuds, revenge and justice. Though I occasionally wondered why Kit knew so much more about the laws relating to horse training than anyone else in the book, mostly I simply enjoyed the story, which grew more complicated and puzzling as it went along. I really look forward to reading the other book in the series. Too bad there aren't more.