I'm not sure if I never read this DF before or if it's been so long that I forgot it. It is a typical DF, with the exception that it's set in Cold War Russia. There are a lot of points that have echoes in today's US society / political scene and make it a really timely read.

I'm not sure I believe it, but there it is: amazon has Trial Run listed as out of print. Amazing.

By now I should be inured to the pace of a Dick Francis novel, which is roughly equivalent to that of a marathon turf stakes at Ascot: in order to conserve energy, the horses start off slow, knowing they have a couple of thousand meters ahead of them; the pace picks up after you get round to the backstretch the first time, and the finish is furious. Francis spent too much time on the backs of nags at Royal Ascot to forget that, I guess. And thus you know that the first three or four chapters of a Francis mystery are likely to bog down. Stick with it; it's almost always worth the trip.

Randall Drew has been forced into retirement (like many of Francis' jockeys). In this case, it's because the jockey club has seen fit to outlaw riding with glasses, and contacts and Drew don't mix well. Drew, friend and lover to English royalty, is tabbed by the Prince to investigate shadowy claims of threats to a Royal who wants to ride in the 1980 Moscow olympics, threats that are backed up by the death of a German olympic rider, supposedly of a heart attack-- but foul play is suspected. Drew heads off to Moscow, and the fun begins.

If you know Francis, you already know whether you're going to buy this or not, I suspect. Francis mysteries are basically formulaic. Ex-jockey becomes amateur detective, ex-jockey discovers something nasty is happening at a track somewhere, ex-jockey investigates, ex-jockey gets into scrapes, ex-jockey gets out of scrapes, ex-jockey solves crime. It's good clean mindless fun, and this one has nothing about it that stands out from the others, save its rather odd location (which seems quaint given the collapse of the cold war nowadays). Good if you like Francis, bad if you don't, and not a book I'd suggest as a jumping-off point if you don't know his work (try Odds Against or Enquiry instead, where Francis is on his home turf).

An average Dick Francis book= a good read.
It is set in Russia about a year before 1980 Moscow Olympics and it was also written then(pre Russian invasion of Afghanistan). The characterization of Russian life is shaded by the times which makes the book interesting on its own.

This was the book that got me in to thrillers and mysteries for grown ups. I was 13 and the school librarian (Mrs Noble) thought that the three investigators books I was in to were below my reading abilities. I remember the action. I remember it was set in Russia. I remember something about a poison that soaked in to the skin and like horses and people. So amazing.

Very good, typical Francis! This 1978 story has held up well; terrorism hasn't changed much (which is perhaps the saddest thing). Russia (more about people and daily lives rather than politics) and horse milieu. Moves fast, lots happening. Quick, enjoyable read!

Dick Francis is one of my cozy mystery favorites

One of a very solid author’s weaker efforts. The Moscow setting is fun but the plot barely hangs together.

I always enjoy Dick Francis novels.

Randall Drew heads to the USSR to look for a mysterious figure who might bring harm to one of the riders on the Olympic Team. Adventure abounds.

I haven't read this book in ages was happy to see it aged fairly well. You absolutely MUST take this in the context of when it was written, both in the spy plot and the "embarrassing" incident Randall is investigating. That said, it's still a great story with a lot of suspense, enough danger to make you think twice walking alongside any Russian rivers in November, and a satisfying ending. This is one of Dick Francis' better books, and well worth reading if you haven't yet.

Dick Francis has been one of the most reliable writers of crime fiction for me, guaranteed to fill in a lazy Sunday afternoon with a pleasant and mildly thrilling mystery set around the horse racing world. I believe Trial Run is the first misfire in the 30+ novels of his I've read so far. I will try to keep my review short, as I really don't like to attack one of my favorite writers.

Trial Run is atypical for me in the Dick Francis catalogue for two reasons :

- his heroes are usually quiet types, with a pleasant, restrained demeanour, easy to like and in general favorable disposed towards the world and friendly with the people they meet. Randall Drew starts as the same type of protagonist, but once he sets foot on Russian soil, he turns into a hate machine for everything he sees around him - not a kind word to be said about Moscow, its people, its culture, its cuisine or its social life. Instead he goes on long and vituperative rants about how ugly and mean and oppresive life in the Soviet Union is - a specialist in only a couple of hours, criticizing the system and the people with acid abandon. Randall's anti-communist attacks colour every page of the novel, repeating and exagerrating all the usual claims that were the norm of the 1950's Western propaganda. None of the heroes I've met in previous Dick Francis books has been so politically involved and so vehement in passing judgement on a country and a culture he is visiting for the first time, not even the one in the book about South Africa, who didn't even touch on the subject of Apartheid. (there are a lot of Dick Francis books that are partly travelogues from around the world)

- the plot here is really forced, descending into some almost silly scenes, coincidences and revelations towards the end. The beginning is again rather standard: Randall Drew is a succesful jockey, forced off the track by the authorities because he wears glasses. He is gentry, has an interest in farming and he really, really likes the British Royal family. But from this premise we jump to him agreeing to go to Moscow as a private investigator to search for the mysterious Alyosha - a person who threatens the safety and the reputation of one royal connected member of the British horse rider delegation to Olympic Games. There's also the suspicious murder of a German rider at a trial event for qualifying at the said Olympic Games. Pretty soon, the plot takes a sharp turn from a murder mystery investigation and becomes a sort of Cold Era spy thriller, as Randall is followed everywhere by the KGB, his room is bugged, everybody is afraid to talk to him, and several attempts are made on his life.  Turns out Randall got himself caught up in an international terrorism plot, and the little English lord that started the investigation has nothing to do with it. Randall solves the case by a series of lucky discoveries of clues and by gallantly boxing the ears of a couple of the most inept terrorists ever . There's also an almost total lack of horse riding time and horse related information, with the exception of a single ride for Randall and some suspect veterinary chemistry claims.

I was tempted to give up on the story more than once, but I really want to complete a read through of all Dick Francis novels in chronological order, so I'll try to jump into the next one soon, hoping for a return to form (he is usually one of the most predictable authors in terms of plot and character development).

Randall goes to Moscow to scope out the field for a Prince's Olympic hopeful brother. Wow, this was just really not up to DF standard.

Francis's mystery novels always involved more than their racing background and the plot-vehicle mystery. This one is a little more intensely about something else than most.

An upper-class English rider (with myopia and asthma) is dragooned by minor nobility into going to Moscow, in advance of the 1980 Olympic Games, to investigate a rumor that one of the possible riders for the British horse team will encounter the mysterious Alyosha, to his cost, should he attend the Games. More than a decade before the fall of the Wall, with Glasnost and Perestroika still unimaginable, but with the memory of the Munich Olympics very much alive, and terrorism beginning to stretch its muscles as the replacement for the "red under the bed," Francis's thoughts about terrorism were in many ways prescient. Fascinating that, for this one book, his protagonist is of the upper classes, rather than the working class and upper-middle class. His observations about life under the Soviet regime one has to trust, as he was generally a careful observer and reporter; but not all of his conclusions about the ideology and the system ring entirely true. Still, they are very much of the period in which he wrote--and this is definitely an entertaining setting for them