Field of Thirteen: Short Stories
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
This first collection of short stories by Dick Francis (author of 10 Lb. Penalty and more than 30 other horseracing mysteries) pulls together five new tales with eight that have appeared in various 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, in much the same way as 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.
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 Field of 13 will appeal to Francis loyalists, newcomers, too, will find much to relish in the short fiction of this mystery grandmaster. --Patrick O'Kelley --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
Dick Francis has compiled a volume of short stories, with settings ranging from the National Hunt Festival at Cheltenham, where a middle-aged owner falls hopelessly in love with her jockey, to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, where the demon drink and wilting willpower take their toll.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I am a great fan of Mr Francis. I have over thirty of his books in my own library and I love them all. The Field of Thirteen must have been written by someone else than Mr Francis. The difference in style, the use of third person instead of first person, uninteresting way of telling the story - all strange to Dick Francis we all know.The amount of new, strange words and expressions makes the text difficult to read (I am a foreigner) unlike before. What a disapointment is all I can say.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I am sorry to say that as a sturdy Francis fan this collection of stories is very poor from a writer that should not have been pressured into publish for publish sake. The stories do not allow the full skill of Francis to be shown and if it was a first buy then I am sure that it would not have encouraged further reading of this very talented author. I have a full collection of Francis novels many signed and many first editions. My collection was not made any the better for the inclusion of Field Of Thirteen. Sorry Mr. Francis but this was not a good idea
Format:Hardcover
This is a collection of short stories on horse racing matters written over several years. Some have been published earlier in various newspapers etc..
And without doubt, the earlier ones at least bear the hallmark of this remarkable author. He certainly demonstrates that he is just as capable of a good yarn in the short story form as well as in the long work.
Although Francis' characters tend to be a bit "wooden" and not all that well developed, his plots have always been exciting and well worth reading. Every one of these stories has a great twist at the end.
An enjoyable set of stories from the Master of the Turf. I guess it's possible these will be his swan song.
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