Can’t believe I never read this one before. Soviet Moscow setting was well done.

Galopp von Dick Francis aus dem #diogenesverlag

My review comes from a different perspective. I just returned from my first ever visit to Russia (Siberia, Moscow and St Petersburg) and this provided an amazing comparison of Soviet Russia to today (or at least our perspective of Soviet Russia). It was a treat to read, given the experience.

Oh dear.
I knew when they dragged in an HRH in the first few pages we were in trouble.
At first I thought "champion jockey meets 007", which would be bad enough, but it isn't even that. Our Hero is only a severely astigmatic and nearly asthmatic non-champion jockey (which always works) and therefore forcibly retired to become Gentleman Farmer and Trainer and he's way more Henry Palmer than James Bond, in spite of his apparently photographic memory and all the rest of that. I'm still wondering how he could bring all these asthma/bronchitis drugs into the Moscow of the day without question, but never mind.
I know I read this book back in the 80s, but all I could remember was the thing about the tape recorder and vaguely something about the river. Listening to it I was forcibly reminded of the film of "The Ipcress File", which made little to no sense the first time I saw it back in the seventies (when I was a kid and didn't expect to understand international intrigue) but when I saw it in the 90s during a particularly vicious bout of respiratory flu, with a raging fever and in French, thank you very much--it made perfect sense. Tried to watch it in English a few years later and was back to total confusion. It could have been fun if Francis hadn't tried to pass off this Joe Perfect Computer Mind as a bumbling non-spy who just wanted to go home, which wasn't helped by all the coinkidinks that saved him from death--how many times was it in total? A lot, anyway.
Mr Bronchial Bat Blind Innocent Abroad Indestructo.
Yeah, right. Because after all he's British, and a jockey, and a free man! (cue theme music for The Prisoner) All the horse fraternity are by definition decent folk, of course, no matter what their political affiliations may be, and because some big wig saw him place third in some race or other, Mr Indestructo has entry to all kinds of people and places.

"Yuh", as the reader might have put it.

As for the plot, I nailed the bad guy the moment he made an appearance, and a few of the other elements were as obvious to me--but then a vet in my own city died of the murder weapon in the course of his normal duties, and my own cat's vet, who was present at the time, was terrified of using the stuff after that. I will admit I was amused at the repetition of how minor employees such as telephone operators and hotel receptionists used dumb insolence to be obstructive; things weren't much different in the Britain of the time, if you ever tried to get information out of your typical jobsworth! But it gave Francis the excuse to beat the jingoist drum, which is what he wanted.

A mediocre book once again saved by Simon Prebble's reading which is the only thing that gave it the third star. I do wonder what he thought of the book. He read it as if he liked it, but I wonder.
(Oh and btw, of course he wasn't helping "the Russian royal family", as there isn't one anymore. Somebody please rescue the GR blurb!)

One of the best books by the author

This book in the Francis series steeps itself in the atmosphere of Cold War Russia, with some interesting observations on how institutionalized fear can warp the character of a people. Unfortunately, the narrator for the audio version of this volume (Tony Britton) had no idea of how to do a Russian accent, so most of the characters ended up sounding more German or Scandinavian than Russian. This one was fun overall, with twists and turns to match the spy caper tone of the book and multiple references to other spy stories of the time. It is also relevant for today's readers, however, since the central mystery involves terrorism at a public event.

If anyone is wondering -- the drugs referenced in this book are real drugs, and they would have more-or-less the effects claimed in the book. However, no pathologist would confuse the true cause of death with heart attack these days.

This is my first Dick Francis novel. I had heard a few radio adaptations of his stories prior to reading this and enjoyed them. It’s not hard to see why Francis is a popular author. His characters are engaging and his plots are pacy. However, whilst this was a quick read, it lacked a degree of plausibility, which rather militated against it being an especially enjoyable read.

This one deals with spies and Russia.

just a really good book.

This book had intrigue, bravery, intelligence and unanticipated revelations at every turn. It also gave good descriptions of what it would be like to live in a country, like Russia, with very restricted freedoms and any ability to be autonomous.

What is there to say about Dick Francis? As I think about all of his books (yes, this review covers all of his books, and yes I've read them all) I think about a moral ethical hero, steeped in intelligence and goodness embroiled in evil machinations within British horse racing society - either directly or indirectly. The heroes aren't always horse jockies, they can be film producers, or involve heroes engaged in peripheral professions that somehow always touch the horse racing world.

But more than that, Francis's heroes are rational human beings. The choices made are rational choices directed by a firm objective philosophy that belies all of Francis's novels. The dialogue is clear and touched with humor no matter the intensity of evil that the hero faces. The hero's thoughts reveal a vulnerability that is touching, while his actions are always based on doing the right thing to achieve justice.

Causing the reader to deeply care about the characters in a novel is a difficult thing to do. No such worries in a Francis novel. The point of view is first person, you are the main character as you read the story (usually the character of Mr. Douglas). The hero is personable, like able, non-violent but delivering swift justice with his mind rather than through physical means. This is not to say that violence is a stranger to our hero. Some of it staggering and often delivered by what we would think of normal persons living in British society.

You will come to love the world of Steeple Chase racing, you will grow a fondness for horses, stables, trainers and the people who live in that world. You will read the books, devouring one after the other and trust me Dick Francis has a lot of novels (over 40 by my last count).

There are several series woven into the fabric of Francis's work: notably the Sid Halley and Kit Fielding series.

Assessment: Dick Francis is one of my favorite writers. I read his books with a fierce hunger that remains insatiable and I mourn his death.

A look behind the iron curtain

Our hero is a farmer called upon by a Prince of the realm to look into threats against a British rider following the death of a fellow German rider. Four attempted murders later the hero solves the puzzle.

Trust Dick Francis to produce another best-seller. This time his hero Randall Drew penetrates the Iron Curtain into Soviet Russia. He emerges, of course, victorious after a series of hair-raising adventures .Randall Drew is prevented from carrying on his career in steeple chasing by poor eyesight.
Restless and unsure of his future but pursuing an ardent love affair, he does not welcome an invitation to go to Moscow on a delicate investigation, but almost irresistible pressures are brought to bear. A mysterious entity 'Alyosha ' is threatening a royally connected candidate tor the Moscow Olympic Games ; the candidate may be vulnerable to scandal which could set off intolerable diplomatic conflicts. The brief is vague, the opposition invisible and the stakes appallingly high.

"I ha'e been to the wild wood: mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm weary wi' hunting, and fain wald lie down."

At the end of the story when Randall is very tired after three attacks aimed to kill him he recites these lines from a poem called ‘Lord Randall’ (!) This poem belongs to a group of songs and poems commonly called Anglo-Scottish ballads, or sometimes "border ballads" (the border in question being the one between England and Scotland).

This poem, a ballad, came into being somewhere between the 13th and 15th centuries, and is not only written in an extremely old poetic form and meter, but it also preserves an archaic way of speaking, like a time capsule in poem-form.

Randall quotes these lines to illustrate how tired he is. When he also concludes that his relation with Emma has no long-term prospects. So we leave our hero in a rather depressed situation, and that is exactly the mood of this poem. After three attacks on his life it is love (or better the lack of it)that kills him. As in many weepy pop songs Love hurts or as in the poem even kills.

Trial Run is the seventeenth in the unfailingly successful series which Dick Francis began when he
retired at the end of his own thrilling career as a steeplechase jockey . In his stories he has travelled the world.