Straight - Hardcover

Francis, Dick

4.12

5,633 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0718131800 ISBN 13: 9780718131807

Publisher: Michael Joseph, 1989

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"Terrific....From the wonderful opening paragraph to the end, Francis propels you forward at a nearly breathless pace."
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As Derek Franklin, an injured steeplechase jockey, nears the end of his career, his older brother, Greville, is killed, and he inherits all the confusion and danger that lay hidden in his brother's life. With peril everywhere, Derek's only hope is to identify the enemy. And he must call on all his stamina and endurance to make the final, straight run in his brother's life--without losing his own....

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About the Author:

Dick Francis was one of the most successful post-war National Hunt jockeys. The winner of over 350 races, he was champion jockey in 1953/1954 and rode for HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, most famously on Devon Loch in the 1956 Grand National. On his retirement from the saddle, he published his autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write forty-three bestselling novels, a volume of short stories (Field of 13), and the biography of Lester Piggott. During his lifetime Dick Francis received many awards, amongst them the prestigious Crime Writers' Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the genre, and three 'best novel' Edgar Allan Poe awards from The Mystery Writers of America. In 1996 he was named by them as Grand Master for a lifetime's achievement. In 1998 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2000. Dick Francis died in February 2010, at the age of eighty-nine, but he remains one of the greatest thriller writers of all time.

From Publishers Weekly:

By now, regular readers of Francis's novels know exactly what to expect: a carefully plotted mystery woven through the world of horseracing, with a few twists and a hero who can be depended upon to do the right thing. On those counts, his 28th novel neither surprises nor disappoints. When Derek Franklin, a steeplechase jockey nursing a shattered ankle from a bad spill, learns of the death of his older, long-estranged brother Greville, he's stunned to find himself named as both executor of the will and sole heir. But in rapid succession, Derek is mugged, his brother's gemology firm is robbed, and Derek himself is assaulted in another robbery attempt; understandably, he comes to suspect that Greville's death may not have been an accident. The complications that follow involve diamond trading, a horse named Dozen Roses and secret computer passwords that are discovered with such consistent good luck that credibility suffers. So does Derek--by story's end, he has rebroken his ankle and been involved in two shootings and a car wreck. Thanks to a clever finale, however, he emerges as intact as the author's reputation. Reader's Digest Condensed Books selection; Mysterious Book Club main selection; BOMC featured dividend selection.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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