false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184622618m/1033339.jpg 8546 14 This first collection of short stories by Dick Francis (author of <I>10 Lb. Penalty</I> and more than 30 other horseracing mysteries) pulls together five new tales with eight that have appeared scattered in periodicals over the last three decades. One of the pleasures of his stories is witnessing the breadth and variety within Francis's racetrack milieu. In "Dead on Red," a jealous jockey named Davey Rockman hires Emil Jacques, a French assassin and gun collector, to kill the famed rider who stole his job; but Rockman is haunted by his deed much in the same way as is the protagonist in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." "Raid at Kingdom Hill" tells of Tricksy Wilcox's scheme for a not-so-bright bomb scare, a plan that still might yield the payoff of a lifetime. "Collision Course" is free of murder but frames a delightful conflict between an out-of-work newspaperman and a bounder whose faux manners threaten to bring him down at the peak of his racing syndicate career. The Kentucky Derby story, "The Gift," follows Fred Collyer, a drunken writer who overhears plans for a major racing swindle and struggles against alcohol to publish the story by his deadline. And the collection ends with a what-if story called "Haig's Death" that examines the consequences of the sudden passing of Christopher Haig, an animal feed consultant and race-meeting judge.<p> Poe, who most historians of literature credit as the creator of the short story, declared that a good short story should have nothing extraneous. Francis's stories, for the most part, obey Poe's dictum. Each character and description fits tightly into an unfolding plan so that the mystery or twist is revealed with a satisfying economy of words. While <I>Field of 13</I> will appeal to Francis loyalists, newcomers, too, will find much to relish in the short fiction of this mystery grand master. <I>--Patrick O'Kelley</I> 1086933 1998 Field of Thirteen total:378|5:58|4:145|3:138|2:34|1:3| 378 1355 478 24 4 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 1998 Sat Sep 13 11:54:54 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 13 11:59:45 -0700 2008 Francis, Dick - 37th book

That octet, composed mostly in the 1970s and initially appearing in various journals (Sports Illustrated, the Times of London, etc.), is reprinted here, along with five new tales, each introduced in brief by Francis....more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Oct 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 07:08:09 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 20:07:24 -0700 2009 2 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue May 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 15 18:44:03 -0700 2008 Thu May 15 18:44:03 -0700 2008 ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri May 02 12:00:08 -0700 2008 Fri May 02 12:00:08 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Mar 10 15:28:16 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 10 15:28:57 -0700 2009 1 0 false false Thu Apr 02 13:17:12 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 02 13:17:58 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Jun 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 08:21:23 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 30 09:13:32 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Jul 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 19:56:16 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 19:56:16 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue Sep 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 13:33:09 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 09:27:52 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Dec 26 00:00:00 -0800 1998 Wed Sep 16 11:20:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 09:23:17 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed May 28 09:35:07 -0700 2008 Wed May 28 09:38:09 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jul 29 07:22:39 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 14:21:45 -0700 2008 3 0 true false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 07 06:52:51 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 08 07:31:19 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 29 23:13:40 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 29 23:14:46 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Tue Feb 05 18:01:31 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 06 05:48:34 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Fri Feb 02 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu May 15 18:52:57 -0700 2008 Thu May 15 18:54:16 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1999 Mon Jul 16 14:51:11 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 16 14:52:17 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Thu Sep 18 13:11:04 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 18 13:11:48 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Mon Sep 01 11:04:57 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 01 11:07:13 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 1999 Fri Feb 29 16:20:09 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 29 16:21:10 -0800 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1033339