"Delightful...A tense, fast-paced new mystery...boasting a resolute, resourceful, and modest hero and lots of racetrack characters and color."
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Transporting racehorses to the course is big business for ex-jockey Freddie Croft. But when a driver breaks a cardinal rule and picks up a hitchhiker, the results are fatal...for the hitchhiker. Freddie knows that a corpse is bad for business, especially when its trail leads to corpse number two --- and to strange nighttime stalkers and unseen conspirators who are weaving a web of deceit and danger that Freddie might never escape....
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Francis's first-rate thriller about the British horse-racing scene--a 10-week PW bestseller--portrays a former steeplechase jockey who learns that his horse transportation firm is implicated in a drug smuggling operation. (Feb.)
School Library Journal
YA-- From the first paragraph, the action grabs readers and plunges ahead like one of the thoroughbreds that is such valuable secondary characters in every Francis novel. As usual, a particular aspect of the British racing industry is carefully profiled, in this case the job of transporting horses. Former jockey Freddie Croft is the owner of just such a business, and 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; along the way a bit of romance begins to enrich his life, a trusted employee is murdered, computer files are wiped out, and a malicious villain destroys Freddie's home with an ax. Clues abound, with those needed to solve the mystery satisfyingly mixed in with enough red herrings to keep readers happily guessing. Additional plot enrichment is provided by weaving in the latest in computer technology and epidemiology. A dependable writer will satisfy his YA fans once again.-- Carolyn E. Gecan, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA
Robert Seid
Dick Francis races to new heights with another retired jump-jockey sleuth, thirtysomething Freddie Croft, owner-operator of a fleet of vans, called Driving Force, that tote thoroughbreds all over Britain to training stables, racing meets, and stud farms. When a hitchhiker dies in one of his vans (strictly against house rules to pick up riders), and when his cockney-speaking mechanic finds small containers concealed under several of the vans, our hero fears drug smuggling. With the help of some well-coordinated action and the usual Francis mix of characters--the whining driver about to be sacked, the supercilious country doctor, various despotic owners and trainers, the tough but refined woman investigator helping to crack the case--the pace accelerates through the clubhouse turn and into the home stretch. One of the best Francis novels in years, "Driving Force" combines an airtight plot, plenty of racing ambience, and some thoughtful reflections on animal rights, immunology, and the work ethic. Francis fans have a treat in store for them.
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