My world was getting a little tight, what with the pandemic and all, so I decided to slip away to Planet Francis for awhile. However, this was not the most felicitous choice, which is what happens when you don't trouble to read the blurb first.
First, Our Hero is an ex-jockey who now transports horses to and from races and sales. Oh, not himself--he runs a business. He's an atypical Francis hero: not a fatherless abandoned drifter who can't fit in, this time he's a trainer's son (which means money or extreme poverty, depending on how you look at it) and former jockey whom everyone in his little village just looooves. He drives a Jaguar and his sister has her own helicopter--admittedly, in timeshare with two others, but you get my point. The bad guys were rather a surprise (though one turns out to be, as ever on Planet Francis, a total head-case) and the web was well woven.

The infelicitous bit is that it takes place during a flu epidemic among both people and horses. Just what I didn't need; no escape from pandemics here! Our Hero decides (as Francis heroes always do) that Justice Must Be Done, and he doesn't trust the police to do it; not even the Jockey Club. No, it's up to Man Francis to sort it out. Another infelicitous bit was Francis-the-author using a part of the story to do with equine charities to say that horses have no emotions; as a former jockey he should know better, but the soapboxing was painfully obvious. Men of his generation often used that to excuse the way animals in general were treated in their youth.


As ever, Simon Prebble could read a shopping list and have me riveted. He gets one star of the four in my rating all to himself. (And was that Griff Rhys-Jones saying "Side One, Side Two"?)

I was surprised the opening heart attack death was a plain heart attack, I thought for sure perfidy would be discovered in it. But no there wasn’t. I could have written it up as a perfidious death, myself. That horrible lethal magnet…

The protagonist, Freddie Croft, has a fantastic business going on, transporting race horses around from their stables to their race courses and back, or broodmares to their studs and back, overseas even, or ageing race horses to their retirement homes. The horsebox diesel fuel consumed is calculated down to the last cubic milliliter, it seems.

He still feels a great affinity to the race horses he used to ride as a successful steeplechase jockey in his previous life and to the ones now being transported about by his Raceways firm. So he’s gotten to middle-age without any little woman burdening him down, leeching onto him.

Many of the supporting characters had surprisingly vicious personalities, it seemed to me.

I’d prefer to read these types of mysteries through in one or two sessions, but I had things to do so this was drawn out over too many days and I fell out of the suspense of it all.

I’ll be looking out for the next DICK FRANCIS NOVEL to read soon.

Freddie Croft is an ex-jockey who, since retiring, has built a very profitable business transporting horses to races and back for their owners. Freddie loved being a jockey and this is a way of keeping his hand in the game, at least to some extent. He runs a pretty tight ship, but his whole enterprise is placed in jeopardy when one of his drivers violates one of Freddie's most important rules and picks up a hitchhiker. When the driver reaches the point where his passenger was to leave the horse van, the driver discovers that the passenger has died. Not knowing what else to do, he drives the van and the body back to Freddie's farm and has to face the music.

The dead body in the truck opens the door to a run of mysteries and bad fortune for Croft and his operation. He discovers that someone has been using his vans to smuggle something, but he doesn't know what it is or was. As the mystery deepens, someone else will die and Freddie Croft will find himself in mortal danger.

This is a fairly typical Dick Francis novel although it lacks the tension of many of the better books in the series. This may result from the fact that there is no nasty, violent, amoral villain operating behind the scenes as there often is in these novels. In consequence, although some bad things happen to Freddie, the reader doesn't sense the danger here that you usually do in one of these books.

Francis often uses these novels to explore various aspects of the racing world and in this case, we get a thorough education about the business of transporting horses back and forth between races and other venues. It's something so mundane that most people wouldn't even think about it and yet, of course, it's an absolutely vital function. We also learn a fair deal--perhaps too much, actually, about viruses, computer and otherwise, although this information is now somewhat dated. Still, it's a pleasant read, and fans of the series will no doubt enjoy it.

I've always enjoyed Dick Francis as his hero is always interesting. Clever story with good twists.

Most enjoyable read, set in the world of horse transportation. I remember when a friend recommended I try reading Dick Francis, many years ago, that I said I did not just want to read about horse racing and she said to me that they were all different. I am so grateful to her today that she introduced me to an author I can visit over and over again. Like she said
"They are all different"

Not the absolute best of Dick Francis books but solidly in the "very good" category of his work. If you're a fan this is a good read.

Not the author's best, though I was unable to solve the mystery until the end and it is well-written, there is some heavily-dated, tedious explanations and I do think he spent too much time on details that didn't matter. Still enjoyed my time reading it.

Why do I bother to buy books? Why do I bother to check out books from the library? I could read the same 20 mysteries over and over again and never remember "who did it". Sigh. Obviously I had read this book before but didn't realize it until page 150. I love Dick Francis. I love the characters, the details about horse racing, and the plot.

Not the best of Dick Francis' novels, imo. The plot was all right, and most of the characters were well written; but the middle third of the novel dragged a bit. Francis thought/talked a little too much about computer viruses, and having a huge chunk of the storyline be about equine viruses as well was a weird combo.
The sudden, burning hatred of the craziest-psycho of the "bad guys" literally seemed to come out of nowhere.....? (I mean, who does these things...?)
Also, the protagonist had a daughter he had nothing to do with, that he kept mentioning, but nothing really happened with that storyline either. She never knew her "dad" wasn't her real dad. This didn't sit well with me. It seemed tacked on, to make the protagonist more likable.
Francis obviously knew a lot about horse transportation, and it showed. I didn't mind learning about this, since most of his protagonists were either ex-jockey/p.i., or ex-jockey/horse trainer. But with these other issues, and an ending that fell flat for me, I didn't enjoy this novel as much as I usually do.
I'd sprung for the audiobook/Ebook combo, and now I'm let down. The narrator was ok...... But that's it. I had to stop listening, as he was boring me to tears. Reading the novel went much, much faster. Too bad this novel isn't on par with his others, as I don't have many more to read, before I've finished them all. And the genius of Dick Francis has left us, some time ago....
3.5 stars.

One can read Dick Francis just for the sheer ease in writing. The calm, detached personality of the protagonists also helps to soothe frayed nerves. Driving Force is not an exception. Frankie Croft, who runs a horse transport business, is likeable, despite his demeanor and uncommon love life. The mystery is interesting, and the ending, as usual, leaves a satisfied reader. Overall, a decent read.

Not gonna lie this book kinda surprised me. I did put it together that Lewis was the one hiding stuff under the trucks before they figured it out. I didn’t expect that it was Tessa who got him to bring some stuff over or uhm I forget his name Tigwood? Was the mastermind and started this whole thing. Honestly I thought it was gonna be one of the drivers and the secretary. And I thought the guy was way to calm to Lewis about almost killing him, I would have at least punched him.

The insider view of various aspects of the horse racing business is what you often get in a Dick Francis novel, here horse transportation. If you're interested by this the novel is going to be more interesting; if not, not. Francis's novels usually are set in the world of work, with a clear-eyed view of what it takes to succeed or fail. (The protagonist's evaluations of the strengths and weaknesses of his many employees show his pragmatic, realistic view. He similarly understands his clients and how to please even the least appealing: their money all spends the same.)

It takes a while for this fully to get rolling, though hints of what's to come are there from early on when a strictly forbidden hitchhiker dies in one of the horse vans.

If you're already a Dick Francis fan you will enjoy; if not, consider beginning with one of his other novels before moving into this relatively obscure though vital aspect of the British racing industry.

Incidentally, there's almost always an obviously evil villain in a Francis novel, less so here, but the characterizations all ring true and are of interest.