I read this back when it came out, but not since. The rating holds up though on re-reading so I'm very glad I found my way back into this book after so long.

First of all, I have a whole new respect for Freddie Croft and the work he does, reading this book at this point in my life. I read this initially back before I had horses. Since then I've purchased horses in Louisiana and shipped them to Colorado, and then later shipped horses from Colorado to California. We've also done a bit of transporting ourselves, bringing a horse up from LA to where we live now, a 4-hour drive. Whew, it's a lot of work. And anyone who can ship horses and get them there safely and in good shape is a hero in my book!

Enter Freddie. Former jockey, now transport specialist with a fleet of trucks and reliable drivers whose job it is to get various racehorses from point A to point B. The thing is, we discover right at the start of the book (which starts off with a definite BANG) that horses aren't the only things that Freddie is transporting. Only with that discovery comes death and meyhem, as only it can in a book of this nature.

I loved re-reading this one. The main character is real and believable and just heartbreaking enough to make you want to take him home with you. The mystery is twisty and unexpected. Everything comes together at the end in just the right way, leaving reader well-satisfied and eager to enjoy the next Dick Francis book. Definitely recommended!

Ex-jockey Freddie Croft, owner of a horse transportation business, must confront the discovery that his vans have been used for some very unusual smuggling. Freddie discovers two separate plots to victimize race horses through disease. As he investigates, a trusted employee is murdered, computer files are wiped out, and a malicious villain destroys our indomitable hero's home with an ax.

One Humdinger of an audiobook! Not to be Missed!

I had told the drivers never on any account to pick up a hitchhiker but of course one day they did, and by the time they reached my house he was dead.

“How was I to know he’d die on us?” Dave said aggrievedly as I put down the receiver. “Do someone a favor . . . Yeah, well, I know you told us not to. But he was going on something chronic about how he had to get to Bristol for his daughter’s wedding or something . . .”
I looked at him in disbelief.
“Yeah, well,” Dave said defensively, “how was I to know?”
“It was all Dave’s idea,” Brett assured me.
“Did you talk to him?” I asked them.
“Not that much,” Dave said. “He chose that seat behind us, anyway. Didn’t seem to want to talk.”
“I told Dave it was all wrong,” Brett complained.
“Shut up ,” Dave said angrily. “You could have refused to drive him. I didn’t notice you saying you wouldn’t.”
“And neither of you noticed him dying, either?” I suggested with irony.
The idea discomfited them, but no, it appeared, they hadn’t.
“Thought he was asleep,” Dave said, and Brett nodded . “So then,” Dave went on, “when we couldn’t wake him . . . I mean, you saw how he looks . . . well, we’d just pulled off the motorway at the Newbury junction . . . we were going to drop him at the Chieveley service station there so he could get another lift on to Bristol . . . well . . . there he was, dead, and we couldn’t roll him out onto the ground, could we?”
They couldn’t, I agreed. So they’d brought him to my doorstep, like cats bringing home a dead bird.
“Dave wanted to dump him somewhere,” Brett whined virtuously. “Dave wanted to. It was me said we couldn’t.”
Dave glared at him. “We discussed it,” he said, “that’s all we did.”
“You’d have been in real trouble if you’d dumped him,” I said, “and not just from me.”

*******

*Audiobook Review*
Driving Force by Dick Francis is a smashing novel written by and it's an even better audiobook! Narrator Simon Prebble's performance is flawless and highly entertaining as he pulled the characters from the pages into living, breathing, and colorful  characters which enhanced this book to a whole new level of entertainment, earning him all 5★'s for his narrative prowess!
My nerves began buzzing very early on and by the finale I could have lit up a metropolis if they'd had an electric current! Dick Francis is my very favorite author, thanks to my Mom who gave me one of his books to intrest me in reading and I've never looked back! I've read all of his novels. His son, Felix Francis, co-authored several books with his father and now writes his own works since his death.
This is one of my top favorite Francis books having read it twice before but I will no doubt be listening to the audiobook again and again! This is one humdinger of a novel! I love, love, loved it! I raced through this audiobook in two sittings!


Champion Steeplechase Jockey to Champion Mystery thriller novelist! The Best Horse Racing Mystery writer!

I didn't like the book that much. The main story is being told way to slow and way to many backstory is being told. And I don't like horses that much, but maybe if you like horses and thriller this isthe perfect book for you

Freddie runs a successful horse transport business. A hitchhiker dies in one of his transports which uncovers a conspiracy involving a complicated way to nobble racehorses. Throw in some touchy customers and a geriatric horse charity managed by someone with a chip on their shoulder and we have a classic Francis thriller.

I found the motive for the murder and smuggling of mites ludicrous. The reason why one of his drivers betrayed him was money for his child’s education a bit weak. The love angle was slow and for a change an older woman is the object of desire. Not my favourite Francis but still entertaining.

Excellent, Dick Francis at his best

As Dick Francis books go, I think Driving Force is pretty middle of the road. The mystery isn't completely predictable from the get go, it's not terribly violent but there are a few violent episodes, and in the end everything is figured out and dealt with. Of course, in the case of Freddie Croft, much like most of Francis's other protagonists, he is unflinching in the face of danger, unrelenting in his pursuit of the truth, and much smarter than any other character gives him credit for. The formulaic method of story telling that Dick Francis uses is a good medium to explore the characters and one of things I enjoy most about his writing is the 3-Dimensionality of his characters, even the background characters. In this book, for example, we know that Croft's driver Nigel is "insatiably heterosexual", that the local policeman Sandy is loyal to a point but stuck between the locals and the higher ups in the police force, and that sister is independent, doesn't care what people think of her, and a bit of a tomboy. Equal attention is paid to the method of the crime, even to the point where I wasn't quite understanding the technical terms and had to wait for someone to explain to Croft what was going on in layman's terms.

All in all it's better and worse than I remembered, as I haven't read a Dick Francis book in something like 7 or 8 years and have never read this particular one. It's a quick read, and light in a way, but still a murder mystery and satisfying in its violence.

I mostly listen to audio books when driving, and I didn't have many long trips this time of year, which is why it took so long to finish listening to this book. Francis is my go to author in the sense that if nothing I have currently available is appealing at the time, I usually return to one of his books since no matter how many times I read or listen to them, they are still enjoyable. This one is still in the racing world, but involves a former jockey's new career in a horse transport business that is being used without his knowledge for another purpose.

Fantastic read

Couldn't put this one down. The plot just kept on rolling with surprises at every turn. Francis was a master.

Enjoyed very much. Good range of characters in and interesting and believable plot. Much interest in the descriptions of life behind the scenes in the horse racing world.

Former jockey Freddie Croft, now owner of a fleet of horse vans, earns his living transporting other owners horses to races throughout Britain and Europe. His whole business comes to halt when a couple of his drivers break the rules and take on a hitchhiker, who dies in the back seat of the truck. Then his mechanic is found dead in the pit of the garage where the trucks are serviced along with a metal box found fixed to the underside of the truck. Smuggling? Murder? Not trusting the local police or his staff, he sets out to investigate the situation himself with a little help from the race track security officer. The answer is much more personal and deadly.

One of the later books from this author. His late books have a reputation of being his weakest; however, paradoxically, his two best books, Straight and Longshot, are from his late period. This book is neither terrible nor great, but it is a good and typical thriller from this author. Like most of the books from the author's later years, this book is a bit talky and wordy, with the author constantly spelling out in great detail things that are fairly obvious or that have already been explicated adequately in the text. I did some skimming. The book does end somewhat abruptly, without really resolving some of the subplots, and that is typical of this author at his best.

Overall, this isn't the first Dick Francis book I would recommend, but it's a good read and I think just about anyone will enjoy it.