The premise was good but overall it was kinda hard to keep track of things. They were constantly on the move and doing things repeatedly and I get it was due to the murder but like cmon guys. And the fact he knew the whole time like why didn’t you tell anyone. It was alright just boring in a lot of places as well

This was more like an Agatha Christie whodunit than a Dick Francis racing thriller.
It is the story of a filthy rich man,his five wives and nine offspring.

His latest young wife gets murdered and
somebody wants him dead.Attempts are being made on his life.

There are multiple suspects in the family,all with the same motive,the desire to get their hands on his money.

The identity of the culprit keeps the reader guessing till the very end.Horse racing, this time takes a back seat.Refreshingly different from his other books.

I hadn´t read any Dick Francis novels in a long time - more than a decade, in fact - when I found "Hot Money" in a used-book store in Spain.
Remembering that I´d enjoyed reading a few of his novels years ago - and being desperate for something to read - I picked it up.
I was only a few pages into this novel when I started mentally kicking myself for not having read more of his novels in the past. The reason: Simply put, he´s one heck of a writer and "Hot Money" is a really wonderful read full of interesting characters, a few exotic locales, and a nice, twisty plot.
The story is centered on a much-married, frequently divorced multimillionaire whose latest wife has been brutally murdered and who now finds himself being threatened. Fearing for his life, he gets in touch with his estranged son, whom he hasn´t seen or spoken to in three years. His son, who works as an assistant racehorse trainer and is the only one of his several children not living on his father´s handouts, reluctantly agrees to help.
What follows is a novel of family betrayals, children who feel entitled to the old man´s fortune even though they don´t much like him, murder, and - of course - horse racing.
Francis, who had been a champion jockey and later a journalist, had a reporter´s eye for detail and wrote in an easy to read narrative style that gave readers an inside look not only at the characters in his stories but also the sport of horse racing.
(I must admit here that I am not a racing fan but that, as a retired journalist myself, I very much enjoyed learning about it.)
All in all, an excellent crime novel and one I´d recommend to anyone searching for something to while away a weekend.

This is one of my favorite Francis books.

Malcom has 5 ex wives and 9 children, all but one of whom want his money, attention, and affection. Only one son is estranged, and that is the son he turns to when he's bashed on the head and his soon-to-be-next-ex is murdered.

The ex wives are hysterically funny, and you'd think Francis would come off as misogynistic when you read about how horrible they are, but he gives each one a backstory so they're also a little pitiful, and more understandable.

The children are every parent's nightmare. Malcom's, too. He is bewildered that his harshness about their financial situations has made his relationships with them worse.

As always, the hero is calm, thoughtful, and would run from a fight if not backed into a corner. The unwilling gentleman hero! My favorite!

I read this when it was first published and thought it was a weak effort by Francis. Then a few weeks ago I read it again and thought it was great. The big set pieces, the smaller moments, the large family of step-siblings all drew me in. How could I have missed all that? Francis is always good at suspense and at letting the reader feel the humanity of the story.

Great story. Greed, jealousy and a dysfunctional family. Malcolm a great character larger than life and Ian the level headed son. What a family. Five wives, kids with problems. So many suspects. Who did it? One of the wives or witches, Gervaise, Ferdinand, Thomas,Lucy, Serena or one of the partners. Great story with the solution in the story.

This has always been one of my favorite Dick Francis novels, I think in part because it's one of the few where the main character has solid relationships with more than one or two people. So often, DF's Young Man is a loner; in Hot Money, Young Man has a good relationship with his father and a network of relationships with his various half sibs and their spouses. I re-read this one periodically and still enjoy it.

I remember enjoying it, but not much more

I loved this book! I've enjoyed all of Dick Francis' mysteries that I've read so far, and this is my favorite of them. As always, there's a likable protagonist, and I also liked his lively multimillionaire father, who, apparently endangered by someone in his large extended family, calls upon his most trusted son, an amateur jockey, to protect him. Perfect pacing, shocking twists, good writing, quite a few comical scenes, and detailed portrayals of the various greedy, spiteful, squabbling family members make for a spellbinding tale. There are still a lot of Francis' mysteries I haven't read yet, and I'm eagerly looking forward to them.

1 Jan 1989
28 Jun 1990
1 Jan 1998
21 Jul 1998

I've read a few of the late Dick Francis' novels over the years; they are all great reads, but this one, "Hot Money" remains my favourite. It's a simply brilliant "whodunnit" mystery, which will keep you hooked (AND keep you guessing which member of Malcolm Pembroke's estranged family wants him dead) until the very last page.

Francis also, inevitably, has the story-line interweaved with horse racing. Whilst in some of his novels this seems a tenuous, 'forced' feature, not so in "Hot Money", where it becomes central to the adventures Malcolm and his son Ian become embroiled in.

This is a quality story, told by a master of his craft. The book is now widely available for next to nothing via online sources; you'd be a fool not to add it to your library.

4.5✨
Dick Francis always delivers.
Hot Money was a little different since it's a family drama intertwined with the usual thriller, but what pushed this to a higher rating for me was the ending. Often Dick Francis' books end abruptly- which is a good way to keep you invested until the last page. However, as a personal preference I do like a page or two to properly wrap up any loose ends. In this case not only are there a few pages there's an epilogue.