Dick Francis Books in Order

Dick Francis recounts his life before becoming a novelist, from his early experience with horses and wartime flying to professional steeplechasing. His memoir follows the demanding career that brought him into royal racing circles.

Jockey Alan York doubts that his friend Bill Davidson's fatal fall was an ordinary racing accident. Investigating a suspicious obstacle on the course, he encounters people determined to prevent him from uncovering the truth.

Jockey Rob Finn's sudden loss of form threatens a promising racing career. Suspecting that someone is deliberately discrediting riders and interfering with their horses, he investigates the campaign while trying to restore his own reputation.

Australian horse breeder Daniel Roke accepts an undercover assignment at an English racing stable. Posing as an unscrupulous stable hand, he must discover how suspicious horses are winning races without exposing himself to the criminals involved.

A ruined hand has ended Sid Halley's career as a champion jockey, and private investigation offers an uncertain replacement. A threat to a racecourse draws him into a property scheme whose participants are prepared to use violence.

Amateur jockey Lord Henry Grey joins a business transporting valuable racehorses around the world. After a horse dies and a colleague disappears, he learns that earlier employees also vanished and begins investigating his new workplace.

Troubleshooter Gene Hawkins interrupts his holiday to investigate the disappearance of a valuable American stallion. Similar kidnappings suggest an organised operation, and his search through the breeding world brings him into contact with blackmail and murder.

Racing journalist James Tyrone investigates after a colleague admits publishing dishonest tips and then falls from a high window. Horses that never reach the starting line provide a clue to a dangerous scheme behind the betting advice.

A stewards' enquiry brands jockey Kelly Hughes a cheat and threatens his livelihood. Determined to prove that he did not deliberately lose a race, he investigates the witnesses and the pressures influencing their testimony against him.

Pilot Matt Shore transports racing passengers between meetings until an explosion reveals that his aircraft has been targeted. Trying to identify the intended victim, he finds himself caught in a plot that threatens future flights.

Masked kidnappers seize Neil Griffon and threaten his father's racing stable unless he obeys their demands. Forbidden to tell anyone, he must protect the horses and the business while devising a way to resist his captors.

Film star Edward Lincoln visits South Africa to discover why a friend's racehorses have stopped performing. The assignment becomes dangerous when apparent accidents suggest that someone wants the actor dead before he can uncover the explanation.

Jockey Club investigator David Cleveland travels to Norway after an English rider disappears with racing money. An attack on his boat and the discovery of a body reveal that the missing funds conceal a more dangerous crime.

Bloodstock agent Jonah Dereham suffers a violent attack after buying a horse for an American client. His search for the reason leads into corruption surrounding horse sales, where the people profiting have little tolerance for questions.

Inventor and racehorse owner Steven Scott dismisses his successful trainer after suspecting theft. The decision provokes hostility throughout the racing world and a campaign of revenge that threatens both his horses and his own life.

Horse painter Charles Todd arrives at his cousin's house to find a murdered woman and a burglary investigation. Convinced that his cousin is innocent, he follows stolen-art clues to Australia and a dangerous fraud operation.

Accountant and amateur jockey Roland Britten is kidnapped immediately after winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Unsure whether racing or his work exposing fraud has made him a target, he must escape and identify the people responsible.

Former jockey Randall Drew reluctantly travels to Moscow at a royal request to investigate threats against an Olympic riding hopeful. What begins as a dispute between competitors leads him toward sabotage, murder and danger to himself.

Former jockey Sid Halley investigates a trainer's failing horses while his ex-wife becomes entangled in a fraudulent charity. A further inquiry into powerful racing syndicates leaves him handling several cases with potentially lethal consequences for everyone involved.

Jockey Philip Nore is drawn into the suspicious death of a racing photographer. As he examines the man's photographic evidence, he encounters blackmail and hidden wrongdoing that make his own knowledge of cameras unexpectedly dangerous.

Physics teacher Jonathan Derry is entrusted with computer tapes containing a horse-racing betting system. When violent men demand them, he must protect his family, while the consequences of the dispute later reach his younger brother William.

Investment banker Tim Ekaterin finances a valuable breeding stallion, only to discover troubling defects among its foals. A murder at the stables strengthens his suspicions that the bank's investment is caught in a deliberate criminal scheme.

Kidnap specialist Andrew Douglas investigates abductions linked to horse racing across several countries. Helping victims and their families exposes a pattern behind the crimes, but his pursuit of the organiser threatens to turn him into another target.

Wine merchant Tony Beach is drawn into an investigation after a racing celebration ends in multiple deaths. Asked to help police identify illicit alcohol, he discovers connections between the disaster and criminals operating around a local club.

Jockey Kit Fielding intervenes when damaging newspaper allegations threaten his sister and her husband's racing stable. A longstanding feud between their families complicates his efforts to uncover who planted the accusations and why they want the business ruined.

This biography follows Lester Piggott's development from a precocious apprentice into a leading figure in British flat racing. Francis examines the discipline, physical demands and professional decisions behind Piggott's career, including his move toward training.

Jockey Kit Fielding tries to help Princess Casilia as her husband's business troubles coincide with attacks on her horses. With his own relationship under strain, he must investigate killings carried out with a captive-bolt weapon.

Amateur jockey Ian Pembroke is asked to protect his wealthy father after the murder of Malcolm's wife and attempts on his life. Their family's disputes over money make the possible suspects painfully close to home.

Undercover racing investigator Tor Kelsey joins a luxury train journey across Canada alongside suspected criminal Julius Apollo Filmer. Protecting witnesses while concealing his identity becomes increasingly difficult as the travelling race meetings provide opportunities for further wrongdoing.

Injured jockey Derek Franklin inherits his brother's gemstone business after a fatal accident. Missing diamonds and unexplained dealings force him to investigate an unfamiliar trade, where his brother's secrets have left him exposed to dangerous enemies.

Struggling writer John Kendall accepts an offer to write a racehorse trainer's biography. Immersed in stable life, he becomes involved in a murder investigation that makes the practical survival knowledge from his earlier books urgently relevant.

Diplomat Peter Darwin returns to Gloucestershire and helps a veterinary surgeon whose racehorse patients are dying without explanation. Investigating the deaths draws on memories of his childhood and places him within reach of a determined killer.

Former jockey Freddie Croft runs a horse-transport business whose drivers break the rules by picking up a hitchhiker. When the passenger dies, Freddie begins questioning what his vehicles may be carrying besides the horses on board.

Architect Lee Morris becomes involved in the future of a valuable racecourse controlled by a feuding family. Competing interests over its survival draw him into escalating conflict, forcing decisions that threaten both his security and his children.

Film director Thomas Lyon returns to the racing world to make a movie inspired by an old murder. A dying man's confused confession suggests troubling connections between the historical crime and the people surrounding the production.

Private investigator Sid Halley examines a series of attacks that leave horses mutilated. Evidence points toward someone he knows and admires, forcing him to pursue an inquiry that threatens friendships and provokes hostility throughout the racing community.

Artist Al Kinloch is attacked at his isolated Highland home just as he learns his stepfather is seriously ill. Missing money and a threatened racehorse draw him into family business troubles pursued by violent men.

Teenager Ben Juliard hopes to become a jockey, but his politically ambitious father redirects him into an election campaign. As attacks threaten their safety, Ben must navigate the dangers surrounding his father's pursuit of a parliamentary seat.

These thirteen short stories explore crime, rivalry and betrayal around horse racing in Britain and abroad. Jockeys, owners and racegoers become involved in dangerous situations, with settings ranging from Cheltenham and the Grand National to American tracks.

Television meteorologist Perry Stuart joins a flight to observe a Caribbean hurricane and survives a crash. What he encounters afterward exposes secrets that follow him home, placing his ordinary life in England under a new threat.

Glass artist Gerard Logan inherits an unmarked videotape after his jockey friend Martin Stukely dies in a racing accident. When the tape is stolen and violence follows, Gerard tries to discover what made it dangerous.

Former jockey and investigator Sid Halley encounters a new case after a winning rider is found shot dead. His inquiry draws him into the racing world's hidden dealings, where murder makes familiar suspicions increasingly urgent.

Chef Max Moreton’s reputation collapses when diners at a glamorous Newmarket gala fall violently ill and his restaurant is shut down. After a bomb tears through the racecourse next day, he suspects sabotage and risks everything to link the two attacks.

Barrister and amateur steeplechase jockey Geoffrey Mason is fresh from defending a vicious client when a fellow rider is murdered and suspicion falls on him. To stay out of prison, he must expose deadly score‑settling inside the weighing room and the courts.

Small‑time bookmaker Ned Talbot is already struggling at Royal Ascot when a stranger claims to be the father he thought long dead, then is stabbed in the car park. Inheriting dangerous secrets, Ned races to discover who is hunting his family and why.

After an IED in Afghanistan costs Captain Tom Forsyth a foot and his army career, he limps back to his mother’s training yard. She is being blackmailed to make her horses lose, and Tom must use battlefield skills to unmask the extortionist.

Financial adviser and former jockey Nicholas Foxton witnesses his colleague Herb Kovak's murder at the Grand National. Searching for an explanation, he investigates their employer's investment business and finds that professional trust offers little protection.

Racing commentator Mark Shillingford confronts his jockey sister Clare after suspecting she deliberately lost a race. When she subsequently dies in an apparent suicide, his guilt drives him to investigate the circumstances behind her death.

Sid Halley refuses a request to investigate suspected race fixing, having retired to protect his family. After the man who approached him dies, threats demanding a false report force Sid to confront the danger again.

Undercover investigator Jeff Hinkley is shadowing a disgraced trainer at Cheltenham when he witnesses a throat‑slashing in the betting ring. As drugged horses and blackmail demands rock the season, Jeff races to identify the extortionist before the sport’s reputation – and his job – are destroyed.

Racing investigator Jeff Hinkley witnesses a murder while following a banned trainer at Cheltenham. A wave of positive drug tests and a blackmail demand then threaten the sport, sending him in search of the person responsible.

Jeff Hinkley is asked by a champion jockey to discuss throwing races, but before they can talk the rider dies in a suspected suicide and Jeff survives a violent attack. Digging into past results, he uncovers organised race‑fixing and powerful people ready to silence him.

Seconded to a US sports‑corruption agency, Jeff Hinkley heads to the Kentucky Derby to hunt a mole leaking investigations to crooked trainers. When a raid turns deadly and leading Derby horses fall sick, he goes undercover on the backstretch to stop a murderous plot targeting the Triple Crown.

Doctor Chris Reynolds treats an unidentified man who collapses at a racecourse and later dies. When nobody claims the body, Chris investigates the mystery, only to face attacks that others struggle to believe are happening.