Longshot

by Dick Francis

Overview

Jump in the saddle with a sure thing.

Writer John Kendall travels to England to interview a racehorse trainer with something to hide-a secret that could threaten Kendall's life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425234631
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/04/2010
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	135,724
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Dick Francis (pictured with his son Felix Francis) was born in South Wales in 1920. He was a young rider of distinction winning awards and trophies at horse shows throughout the United Kingdom. At the outbreak of World War II he joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot, flying fighter and bomber aircraft including the Spitfire and Lancaster.

He became one of the most successful postwar steeplechase jockeys, winning more than 350 races and riding for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. After his retirement from the saddle in 1957, he published an autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write more than forty acclaimed books, including the New York Times bestsellers Even Money and Silks.

A three-time Edgar Award winner, he also received the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association’s Cartier Diamond Dagger, was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, and was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2000. He died in February 2010, at age eighty-nine, and remains among the greatest thriller writers of all time.

Hometown:

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, British West Indies

Date of Birth:

October 31, 1920

Date of Death:

February 14, 2010

Place of Birth:

Tenby, Pembrokeshire, southwest Wales

Place of Death:

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, British West Indies

Education:

Dropped out of Maidenhead County School at age 15.

Editorial Reviews

The reliable Francis ( Straight ) delivers again, this time in a thriller featuring young author John Kendall. Kendall writes survival manuals for an adventure-travel agency, but has taken time off to pen a novel. When money runs thin, he agrees to write the biography of famed horse trainer Tremayne Vickers. Leaving London for Vickers's Berkshire home, Kendall arrives as one of Vickers's two principal riders is acquitted of murdering a young woman with whom he'd quarreled. However, members of Vickers's entourage, including sons Gareth and Perkin and Perkin's wife, Mackie, suggest the hot-tempered jockey had some part in the death. Kendall fits easily into the household, conducting research, taking notes, even cooking and working horses; then the body of a missing stablegirl is found in the woods. As Kendall's research continues, his riding skills improve and he is taken into Vickers's confidence, the intrepid writer finds himself under attack. Horses, danger, betrayal and doing the right thing--expected components of a vintage Francis yarn--permeate a plot presented with authority and verve. Paperback rights to Fawcett. ( Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly