Longshot - Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56

It's been a long time since I read a book by Dick Francis, but when I saw Longshot on a "free books" shelf, I grabbed it. What a fun story! This book was published in 1990, but it holds up well -- even though characters have car phones instead of cell phones. Mr. Francis passed away in 2010 but his 40+ books are still entertaining.

Genre: Mystery
Book Length: 322 Pages (paperback)
Amazon Link: Longshot
Amazon Author Page: Dick Francis

Book Beginning:
     I accepted a commission that had been turned down by four other writers, but I was hungry at the time.
     Although starving in a garret had seemed a feasible enough plan a year eralier, the present realities of existence under the frozen eaves of a friend's aunt's house in a snowy January were such that without enough income to keep well fed and warm I was a knockover for a risky decision.
     My state of course was my own fault.

The Friday 56 (from Page 56 in my paperback):
In the now sunlit kitchen Tremayne was standing by the table, talking crossly into the telephone.
"You would have thought that someone would have noticed by now that they're missing a horse."

Synopsis (from Amazon):
"Fast-paced, meticulously plotted...Nobody sets up a mystery better than Dick Francis."
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Travel writer John Kendall didn't think he was doing anything too out of the ordinary when he tramped off to rural England for an interview with a successful race horse trainer. Soon enough, however, Kendall realizes that completing the book will be tricky at best. In fact, the perils described in his survival manuals pale next to the dangers in rural England....
Selected by the Literary Guild, the Mystery Guild, and Doubleday Book Club
                


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