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dick francis

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English agent Gene Hawkins is restlessly facing three weeks of vacation with only his tormented past for company. So when his boss asks him to help millionaire Dave Teller locate a prized missing stallion, he accepts. But he gets more action than he bargained for when he draws the affection of his boss' beautiful teenage daughter, advances from Teller's socialite wife, and the deadly attention of the horse thieves, who would be happy to put Hawkins out to pasture...permanently.

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1,1967
Literary awards
edgar award, 

This edition

Format
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published
November 2, 2004 by G.P. Putnam's Sons
ISBN
9780425199169
ASIN
0425199169
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, 99 votes)
5 stars
22(22%)
4 stars
41(41%)
3 stars
36(36%)
2 stars
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99 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
slavgaard
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Like a good wine!!

I have read this book several times now, first time when it was first published, on initial reading I found it quite depressing but subsequent reading have made me realise that there are a lot of people who suffer with depression, I feel for them if they have half the problems Gene has. Hopefully since it was first published there is a lot more help for them.
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Splair
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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A real thriller. I found myself holding my breath in spots. Expertly narrated and a joy to listen to.
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JoHou
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I liked the mysteriousness of the leading character. I would enjoy more of him. I enjoyed the Kentucky settings as I know that horse country. I always enjoy Dick Francis's books. I enjoyed this one. Not a lot of depth. Not any surprises. What made this book was the main character's inner struggles. Glad I read it.
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debu811
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Most of the Dick Francis books I have read before had a lot of actual horse racing in them. This one was about stolen horses that seemed totally lost in America and a man trying to find them. Very interesting ideas.
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ALLRIGHT-
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Listened. I liked much of this quite a bit, but the tacked-on, half-assed depiction of depression was incompetently done, and the mostly approvingly-portrayed semi-romance between a 38 year-old man and a 17 y/o girl???? Just no. Too many negatives for anything more than OK, and probably generous at that. Early Francis, but not enough of an excuse.
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Kalido12
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Spoiler: No happy ending here. This story was a little tough to read because the protagonist, while he shared many DF hero traits, he also suffered from depression and often shared his suicidal musings. How Gene Hawkins manages to track down three missing horses and then retrieve them was pretty cool. Lots of suspense involved in both retrievals. This was a reread and despite knowing the outcome I was worried about the time it was taking. Two negatives. I wasn’t happy about Walt. No details. I was disturbed by 39-year-old Gene’s attraction to barely eighteen Linnie. Here’s Gene’s description of her as she’s sleeping; her skin was close-textured like a baby’s and her face was that of a child. The woman inside was still a bud, with a long way to grow. Ick.
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galadriel_832
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I thought this felt different than some of Francis' other books, both because the horse racing element is such a minor factor (it's really more a straight detective novel), and because the main character is such a flawed, tragic figure. Or maybe that it takes place mostly in America. Something

I was ready to give this one 2 or 3 stars as Gene Hawkins (the main character) was really just a drag, and things were really all too easy (which happens in Francis mysteries sometimes).. then they weren't. The last 20 pages really tied the book up nicely... it was both a surpise and an excellent ending.
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melzi
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Gene Hawkins works for the government - he does background check and investigation to ferret out potential spies. He has 3 weeks off and his boss asks him to find a missing horse - one in a string of three that have gone missing. Investigation takes him to America with plenty of danger. Hawkins is very depressed, close to suicidal. Decent plot. Interesting story. No language.
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