John Francome Books in Order

After notorious horse dealer and womaniser Glyn Cole vanishes, the Berkshire racing community slowly recovers from his chaos. Two years later a violent storm exposes his hidden corpse, forcing everyone who profited from his disappearance to face dangerous questions about who killed him and why.

Young trainer Simon Waterford seems unstoppable after a big Royal Ascot win and a brilliant two year old in his stable. But his glamorous fiancée is hiding a past that others will kill to protect, turning a golden season into a spiral of blackmail, violence and murder.

A year after his girlfriend Kirsty dies in a diving accident, jockey Danny Clark is rebuilding his life with her best friend, Tara. As their relationship deepens, old secrets around Kirsty's death emerge, and both Danny and Tara find themselves marked for another carefully staged accident.

Ten years after a fatal car crash they all swore to forget, four former racing school friends are thriving in the sport. When a hit and run and a nosy journalist start to uncover what really happened, loyalties fracture and someone is ready to kill to keep the truth buried.

Ambitious jockey Pat Vincent knows he will never be a superstar, so he masterminds a daring betting scam with his troubled brother in law. As Pat's apprentice girlfriend Zoe chases her own riding dreams, the secret scheme and a crumbling Somerset cliff edge combine to send all three lives into free fall.

Jockey turned small scale breeder Rob Harding finally hits the jackpot when his homebred colt Goldeneye storms to victory, promising to rescue his failing business. But tragedy on and off the track, plus the return of his head girl's violent ex lover, expose a ruthless plot where horses and people are disposable.

Down on his luck jockey Alan Morrell loses his best friend and business partner in a supposedly freak fall that also destroys their bloodstock venture. Crushed by debt and suspicious of foul play, Alan follows a trail that links racecourse accidents, a fellow rider with dangerous secrets and a criminal empire about to implode.

Veteran jockey Josh Swallow wants to retire as champion, finally adding the missing title to a glittering career. As he battles a brilliant young rival and a bitter former friend turned top trainer, an unseen admirer with a deadly obsession starts turning his farewell season into a nightmare.

Determined young trainer Pippa Hutchison is convinced she can compete with the best, until a key owner moves horses to a rival yard and they suddenly start winning. With the help of her brother Jamie, a once brilliant jockey haunted by a fatal drunk driving crash, she uncovers a racing operation built on intimidation, score settling and crimes that were supposed to stay buried.

After a horrific fall, champion jump jockey Phil Nicholas returns to racing with his body healed but his nerve shattered. While he fights flashbacks and freezing in the saddle, a masked attacker starts punishing riders who bend the rules, forcing Phil to confront both his fear and a vengeful enemy.

Toby Brown, the savvy son of a leading trainer, runs a telephone tipping line that keeps beating the bookmakers. When the betting giants push for a Jockey Club inquiry, the investigation uncovers a deadly conspiracy where greed, jealousy and one supposedly unbeatable racehorse combine to create the perfect motive for murder.

Honest jockey Tony Byrne has never fixed a race, yet his struggling career is sinking under weight problems, bad rides and messy relationships. When notorious rule breaker Freddy Montague's crooked deals collapse, Tony is dragged into a dangerous world of race fixing, blackmail and violence where his integrity may be the only lifeline left.

When a popular jockey dies in a late night car crash, his journalist friend refuses to accept it as a simple accident. A puzzling will that leaves everything to a mysterious relative leads him deep into racing politics and family secrets, where asking questions can be as dangerous as any fall.

Orphaned and undersized, Joey Leatham survives a harsh childhood, finds freedom with a travelling circus and finally lands in Newmarket as an apprentice jockey. Fame and success follow, but a shadowy blackmailer and a murdered witness threaten to destroy his career, his hard won love and even his life.

Young trainers Charlie Patterson and Nick Ryder strike gold when their unfashionable filly Willow Star turns into a potential classic winner. But when ownership changes and disaster hits the yard, suspicion and jealousy swirl around the horse, leaving Charlie fighting to clear his name and save his future in racing.

Fifteen years after twelve year old David Tredington vanished, the heir to a famous stud farm is found alive and brought home. His sudden reappearance divides the family and unsettles the inheritance, and when a stable lad dies in a brutal accident, David realises someone will kill to erase the past a second time.

A decade after sacrificing his fiancée for a politically useful romance, jockey Rory Gillespie gets a second chance when Laura, now a successful trainer, asks him to ride her star chaser. When her wealthy husband dies in a suspicious fall and Laura is blamed, Rory risks everything to uncover who really stood to gain.

Jake Felton, already a leading jockey in his home country, leaves New York's racing underworld to start fresh in England. Instead he walks into a pattern of staged accidents and mounting threats, and with only Camilla Fielding at his side must discover who wants him dead.

Amateur jockey Archie Best inherits an unexpected legacy from an old family friend, along with a set of troubling conditions that point toward powerful businessman Clive Drury. With help from sharp witted Georgie and dangerously attractive Amanda Drury, Archie uncovers a web of political influence, fraud and murder that reaches far beyond the parade ring.

When Paul Raven's mount crashes through a hurdle at Plumpton, the fall looks like one more tragic racing accident. As his own riding career ends and his closest friend self destructs, Paul traces a link between a string of accidents and a rich developer's private poker school where the stakes are life and death.

For apprentice jockey Kelly Connor, one huge race on the colt Pendero could make her name. But with a crooked trainer, an unstable playboy owner and a ruthless bookmaker all desperate to cash in, she is drawn into an international scheme of blackmail and murder that has nothing to do with fair racing.

This second volume of autobiography follows John Francome beyond the early triumphs of Born Lucky, through championship seasons, famous horses and the pressures of life at the top. Packed with candid racing stories, it shows how fortune and hard work shaped his later career on and off the track.

Fergus returns to his family's stud farm only to discover his long missing father's body buried beneath an asparagus bed. As suspicion falls on his mother and her partners in a disastrous insurance scheme involving a failed stallion, Fergus and an unorthodox investigator probe a trail of fraud, betrayal and more than one killing.

Victoria Pryde is stunned to read in the racing paper that her gambler husband Edward has been declared dead after disappearing for two weeks. When police arrest trainer Tom Radcliff, the man she secretly loves, she begins her own investigation into Edward's blackmail victims, any one of whom had reason to see him gone.

Alistair Rye is the last man to see washed up jockey Jose Ramirez alive after a violent argument involving a knife. When Ramirez is later found dead with needle marks and a stab wound, Alistair is wanted for murder and drug smuggling and must rely on his wife Claudia to help clear his name.

When a powerful racing figure turns up dead in a horse box at Newbury, what began as routine disciplinary cases explodes into blackmail and murder. Journalist, tipster and amateur jockey James Thackeray, who discovered the body, is drawn into exposing a corrupt ring that would rather silence him than lose control of the National Hunt season.

In this first autobiography, John Francome tells the story of a Swindon lad who left school early, learned his trade with trainer Fred Winter and rose to become a seven time champion jump jockey. Full of racecourse tales, hard falls and hard earned wins, it offers a vivid inside view of his riding years.