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Wild Horses

dick francis

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Once a blacksmith, now famous and respected as a newspaperman, Valentine Clark knows everyone who is anyone in the racing world. Aged, confused, blind and dying, he harbors a daunting secret that he is desperate to be rid of. he makes his last confession to his visiting film-director friend, Thomas Lyon, whom in his delirium he mistakes for a priest. Unburdened and at peace, Valentine passes away, yet his legacy remains, guarded by Thomas.

On location in Newmarket, Thomas is troubled by the old man's secret. Seeking to understand this puzzling revelation, he uncovers a long-unsolved mystery that he soon finds is very much unforgotten. But as much as he wants to learn more, it seems he already knows too much. Imaginative and decisive though he may be, he will need superhuman courage and extreme cunning to stay alive.

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 21,1994

This edition

Format
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published
May 4, 2004 by G.P. Putnam's Sons
ISBN
9780425196748
ASIN
0425196747
Language
English

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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, 100 votes)
5 stars
27(27%)
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33(33%)
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40(40%)
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100 reviews All reviews
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Chuniru
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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have not read a dick francis since he died. thought i read them all, but obviously not. easy read with the usual non hero problem solving through the issues to an end resolving all the issues. director making a movie about an old unsolved death adapted from a fiction novel about the incident. interweaving of movie directing and horses just does not make this one of the author's better reads. duly acceptable for a saturday, rainy day matinee with a libation accompanying the read. enjoy!
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Bunroeun
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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As with all Dick Francis thrillers, this book did not disappoint. So many authors over-use violence, making it commonplace. Francis has always been able to bring a few violent acts down to a point that is personel, and scary. The reader is never numb to the pain and terror of even small injuries. I suppose Francis had enough run-ins with injuries as a jockey to give him this edge. But the next important step that Francis takes is to develope villians that are personal in nature as well. These aren't James Bond villians who want to take over the world and are willing to kill thousands at a single swipe. No, his villians have small, personal, violent urges that are directed at one or two people. I am reminded of that discomforting feeling I get in the grocery line when I inadvertantly run afoul of a stranger who suddenly looms beside me with a presence that cannot be ignored. A "what have I gotten myself into?" sort of situation--is this guy going to follow me into the parking lot and come after me? Seriously? What is wrong with this guy?
Wild Horses has these two elements in fine racing form. The slow, methodical descent into mystery and danger drew me in, with ever increasing speed. Somewhere around page 250, I stopped taking breaks from reading and galloped down the home stretch, as if the last lap were run down a steep hill.
As a bonus, this book dealt with movie making, and I love anything that details this process. This was great fun.
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Thatevafag
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I just re-read this after many years, such a great writer, or should I say writers, since Francis himself credited his wife as being his writing partner. The characters in this book are so well observed and described, and the story is very good! So glad to be starting all the Francis books again!
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roebot01
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Another easy-to-read Dick Francis mystery, but a long way short of his best work. I wasn't overly convinced by the movie-making setting that provided the background to the novel. In my opinion, it padded the storyline needlessly. The big red editors pen could easily have gone through much of it, including in particular, the dream sequences and the purchase of viking horses offshore - both of which added nothing of note to the actual plot. 3 stars *** (just).
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jesteri
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Dick Francis ability to make every book compulsive, even though you know the hero of the day is going to win, is enviable. I have not the slightest recollection of reading this, and learning of the processes whereby films are made, though I guess it's one bought and read as soon as it was published - very likely a Christmas gift.
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Sarbajeet
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Published in 1994, this book follows the reliable and very readable Francis formula - this time our hero is a young film director who faces danger from people trying to sabotage his film loosely based a local death in Newmarket 26 years earlier. Easily read in one day.
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jingo123
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I haven't read a Dick Francis for a while but this reminded me what an enjoyable read they can be. Think there were some plot holes but a page turner none the less
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RampageKiwi
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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The usual Dick Francis ingredients -- horses, racing, brave laconic hero getting beaten up and so on. Some of the books have a different backdrop, and this one has the film industry. The hero is a director, shooting a film about an old unsolved mystery in Newmarket. The best part of the book is the insider view of how a film is shot, how truth is adapted to fiction and how fiction is adapted to other fiction. There's almost a philosophy in there.
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