(3 1/2) Sequestration causes many events to occur, one of them being going back to your personal bookshelves and hunting up old chestnuts. I bet I have not read a Dick Francis book for 10 years or more, and my wife has a great collection of them. So I looked up the reviews and this one came out on top. What a fun ride (intended pun). A terrific protagonist, lots of good side characters and a low import crime to solve that gets revealed slower than a bad strip tease. As always, Francis’s style is big fun and very easy to cruise through. Good stuff.

I love this one. I wish it had a better title though. But the story was fun and a dark and generally a good read

Probably would give 3.5 stars as I was well into a third of the book before I came engaged enough to look forward to reading every day! However, I quite enjoyed this mystery and felt satisfied at the end. As with all of Francis' stories it is set within the British horse racing community (steeplechase in this case), yet it really just provided a backdrop for the action. John Kendall, a writer, is hired to write a bio of the head of a prominent racing family and is ensconced in their home to do the research and get to know the subject. He arrives in the midst of extended family turmoil related to an "accidental " death & one soon to be discovered. His presence is delightful to some and resentful to others, which only causes more friction among family members and employees. John could never imagine that his research and writing of travel survival guides ( i.e how to survive in the desert etc.) would soon come into play both to the advantage of someone trying to hide a crime and to be used to save a life including his own!

28-Jul-98
Longshot - Dick Francis It's funny that I've read this at least twice before and never wrote anything about it. I can't love the mystery because there's a whole lot of slut-shaming and blaming the victim(s). But, the stuff about the great trainer wanting his story told, and the writer who's sold his first novel and is trying to write his second and live on his tiny advance...that has the feeling of real truth. And despite the heinous indifference of the community to the death of a young sexually-active woman, the Ladies (titled or not there are clearly some women who are better than others, at least in part because they are safely married)  are all treated with respect and admiration.
 
Yeah, despite the bad, I still love the book, because who doesn't want to be offered the chance to ride a good horse and then be asked to turn jockey? Even at my age I still like to daydream about previously undiscovered talents being discovered. Probably very few people actually could stand modeling as a career, say, but who wouldn't love to be asked?
 
Personal copy

Good solid Francis. The main character is stoic, courageous, and talented. He's pursuing his dream, but grabs a chance to get a roof over his head when a horse trainer decides to write an autobiography. There's physical pain, interactions with various people, a moment of clarity, and a desire to ride more horses.

He doesn't get a girl, but we can't all have everything.

4 Stars

"Hot on the heels of his runaway bestseller Straight, Dick Francis once again breaks away from the pack with his dazzling new mystery, Longshot. A starving writer turns to work that will at least pay the bills, but he soon discovers the perils of rural England. His agent had warned that his impulses would kill him, but he didn't listen--not by a longshot."
Longshot by Dick Francis is a crime and investigation story with family dynamics, tension, secrets, mystery, suspense, drama, and more- which made for quite an engrossing read.
->2023 Reading Challenge.
->Glennie's Collection
Dick Francis novels were a familiar fixture in our household when I was growing up, as both my parents loved his books. He was amongst the first ‘adult’ reads that I explored at the time, and over the years I have read everything he’s written. I remember every time my mother read one of his books, she'd tell me about him and how he'd gone from being an RAF pilot to being the Queen Mother's favourite jockey, before retiring to become a journalist/writer.
Since my mother passed away over a year ago, I have been making my way through her book collection, finally. I decided to make reading her entire collection a part of my reading challenge for the next couple of years (she has a HUGE collection), as well as a way to pay tribute to my mum, who was such a voracious reader..... Reading her collection of books has stirred up a lot of memories, mostly of our shared love of reading. I am forever grateful that she passed on her love of reading to me.

My Mother-in-law was reading this book over the last two and a half years. She has dementia, so she would start over on page one every day, and never got anywhere in it. She gave up about a month or two ago. I am taking care of her basic needs during the day now. So I decided to try reading the book to her last week. I just finished today. She could not really follow well for the same reasons she started over every day before. BUT, she paid full attention to every word as I read it to her. I can't get inside her head and know what that means, but I figure the paying attention was evidence that she was getting something out of it. That said, I thought the book was pretty good. The main character was a writer who gets a job writing a horse trainer's memoirs. There are a couple of murders in the book, thus the mystery, and the main character has skills in outdoor survival which come into play. He also seems to have the kind of mental skills it takes to solve mysteries as the inspector asks his advice more than once on one of the murders. The main and other characters are well described and likable. The page to page drama is interesting. And the climax and the resolution are very good in my opinion.

Good story. A little long on description of details. Ending didn’t make a lot of sense. A little to convenient to end the story

Just a great blending of people, their relationships, and plot. Dick Francis is such a remarkable writer in being able to convey personality in just a few short sentences.

Always a guilty pleasure. I just love Dick Francis.

This marks the halfway point of my reading/rereading of all of Francis’ books. This one was particularly good.

Top notch Dick Francis.