What a joy! To find a Dick Francis that I somehow missed the first time through. O frabous day, caloo callay.

While the story itself and the horseracing and murder aspect was enjoyable, I actually found the survivalism aspect more fun (and educational) to read about. I enjoyed reading about the trips to the wood as the author was teaching his boss' son and his friend various survival techniques in the woods, and other survival trivia learned from the accident at the boathouse, for example. It was fun to read about what you would need and what kind of kit to carry with you. Overall a fun book.

Less a mystery than I expected it to be, more a tale of adventure. Loved the many survival tips (which eventually take a grim turn), John Kendall's dreams of publication while starving in a garret, and the way he incorporates with this small circle of the racing world while being aware he won't be staying with them for long. Also every one of his travel agency survival trip anecdotes is hilarious to me.

I have not read too many Dick Francis’ novels, but this one made a big impression on me since it involved the world of writing, literature, literary agents…John Kendall is a struggling writer – I have identified with this for years! – and his attempts to survive in this sphere sparked empathy from me. His (early) interactions with his agent piqued me – even if he would learn that his agent even before talking to him, had accepted a position on his behalf before deigning to brief him! Indeed there is a lot of human warmth, great intelligence, fecund interactions amongst people in Francis’ novel.

But always terrifying is the sinister, cruel proclivities of certain individuals (‘villains’) in his works. People one would not necessarily associate sheer, palpable evil with, often turning out to be incredibly malevolent. And so it turns out here too. Late in this work, we flinch with horror as our hero has an arrow embedded in him, with the concomitant excruciating pain that goes with this. Yet the tormentor is still bent on tormenting him further, by trying to pull the goddamn arrow out! Excuse me. Even now I shudder trying to imagine the throes of pain. The mystery in this work, as usual, is exceedingly brilliant, complicated yet simple in the end... Yes, Kendall is a struggling writer who has nevertheless managed to publish some "books". His encounter with an established, formidable, revered female writer late on in this work, for me, was worth the price of this book alone !

3.5 rounded up! I enjoyed the story up until the letdown of a resolution.

The most important draw for me as a reader when reading a mystery is a compelling narrative voice and Dick Francis does not disappoint. I admit as a writer I felt especially drawn to the character of John Kendall. Kendall is the successful author of a series of how-to guides about wilderness survival. Despite his glamorous occupation, he's completely skint at the beginning of book, having frittered away almost his entire advance. He doesn't have enough money to put coins in the heater of his cheap rented flat. So he's desperate enough to accept a position ghost-writing the memoir of a successful horse racing trainer. Of course, he stumbles into a mystery--one of the stable hands, a beautiful young girl is found murdered.

The book is well-plotted and delightfully funny. One of my favorite sequences involves Kendall attempting to teach a group of teenage boys how to forage for food in the wilderness although they'd really just rather be eating pizza indoors.

My only quibble is that the other characters could have been a bit more differentiated and there wasn't quite as much horse-related action as I'd hoped for but still a fun and expertly-written read.

Pretty good for a thriller. I don't like the whodunnit genre in general. But this was so much more than that. Gives a sense of experiencing the niche life of rural england, and the winter.
Things that come to mind on thinking back about it is fresh dewy grass on an overcast day, cold clear nights, and the brimming sweet sense of anticipation. A druidic feel.

I like the book because of this genre of experience fiction, and would hesitate to call it expressly crime fiction.

Dick Francis is my favorite writer...no one quite like him. Incredible details, character development and I love the way he uses sentence structure to set a scene and convey emotion. Dick Francis was a master at that. I've read his entire collection, and this is among my top-five favorites. I'm a newspaper writer, so it was fun to relate to the anguish of writing that is expressed in this novel. I've read the entire Dick Francis collection, and am now going back through the classics on my shelf — it's like reading them for the first time. My heart was racing and I couldn't flip the pages fast enough. Great stuff.

This is another good installment in the Francis series. The hero in Longshot is a survival expert and author, so of course we are treated to several episodes in which he must put his skills to good use -- and, as bonuses, his survival techniques also play integral parts in the central mystery propelling the plot along. I always admire the way Francis handles personal suffering and coping with adversity, and there's plenty of both here. The hero is perhaps too good at everything he tries, but it's easy to forgive Francis for a few weaknesses here and there.

An excellent Dick Francis novel, notable for a fairly large cast of characters that are well differentiated and memorable. (Usually when I read one of his novels I'm juggling at least a couple of characters who don't quite jell, and I'm wondering which one is which.)

Here the protagonist is somewhat of a loner, a temporarily starving writer who moves right inside the family of a championship level horse trainer as he writes the trainer's biography in return for comfortable room, board, and stipend, and he is welcomed right in. He's a hit with these people, most of whom are relatively sane themselves.

We don't get a love interest for our protagonist, which makes good sense given the relatively short time he lives with the family. We also don't get the overly villainous Dick Francis bad guy. Both of these are good features. Instant love interests and grotesque villains are features that made many of these novels seem dated--like something from the 1930s or earlier--even when they first appeared. The adolescent boy of the family is not surly and difficult--another Dick Francis trope--but very open to experience and willing to learn from our hero, an expert in wilderness survival, among other skills.

If this isn't my favorite Dick Francis novel, it comes close. It's a breath of fresh air.

My favorite genre, after I graduated from children's books to those for adults, used to be mystery/thriller. I loved Sherlock Holmes and Perry Mason series, and books by Alistair Maclean and Desmond Bagley. However, in last few years, I have been having trouble finding the kind of thrillers I like; most of contemporary works being psychological thrillers, frequently with gruesome details, psychopaths, and child abuse. That's when someone recommended me Dick Francis (though I no longer remember who or when), and I added Longshot and Danger to my reading list.

Over the Diwali weekend, I wanted to relax with something engaging but unstressful, so I picked up Longshot for a quick read. It turned out to be fairly entertaining but unremarkable book. The protagonist, John Kendall, a budding author of fiction, is an expert on surviving in extreme conditions. Brief descriptions of these skills are sprinkled throughout the book; they are interesting, and also come in handy in the course of the events in the novel. He accepts a commission from well known horse trainer Tremayne, and comes to stay at his family home. Over time, he comes to realize the warm and compassionate nature of his employer, beneath the autocratic and sometimes unreasonable exterior. It makes for nice reading, though it is a well used trope. Kendall's interaction with Tremayne's teenage son Gareth was the best part of the book, as Gareth comes to look up to him as a mentor/elder brother.

Since the employer and the second main character Tremayne is a trainer of racing horses, there is a lot of detail about horse racing in the book (and is a consistent theme in his works, as I come to know from other reviews). Initially I read about those, but after a while I lost interest and skipped the details that didn't have a bearing on the plot.

In these kind of novels, the protagonist usually has some extraordinary skills, which gradually emerge to save others from peril. I think this one went a bit too far on this aspect - Kendall's survival skills, and keen observation and reasoning were alright (and expected), but his learning to ride racehorses well enough to become an amateur jockey in less than two weeks was rather far fetched.
Coming to the question of the genre, which is the main point, I wouldn't call it a thriller. It is a murder mystery alright, but I don't think it is a great one. The murder comes into picture after quite a bit. The identity of the murderer involved an obvious red herring, and another usual device - it turns out to be a very unlikely character. In the good ones, the path to discovery is where the tension lies, but I didn't find it to be one of those biting-your-nails kind of journey.

My rating: 2.5 stars, rounded to 3.

An old favorite. Dick Francis is very good at what he does.