Product Description

For a generous commission, ex-prizewinning jockey Jonah Dereham reluctantly agrees to bid on a young steeplechaser on behalf of a wealthy American woman. But his life is thrust into danger immediately following the auction, when he receives a blow to the head by two thugs demanding ownership of the horse. Unfortunately, that's just the beginning—and now Jonah must figure out the high-stakes game being played...before he becomes its next casualty.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4764618 in Books
• Published on: 1979-07
• Format: Large Print
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 325 pages

From the Publisher
Dick Francis, a former jockey, brings his experience of racing and life around the racetrack to his mysteries. (And so far Francis is a three-time winner of the Edgar Award for writing the best mystery of the year.) This horse racing background is appealing to my market area of Southern California. Racing is a popular sport amongst Southlanders.

--Nanci Andersen, Ballantine Sales

About the Author

Dick Francis is the New York Times bestselling author of many novels. A three-time Edgar^® Award-winner, he was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1996 and received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Malice Domestic mystery convention. He lives in the Caribbean.

Customer Reviews

Can't Knock It.
Anyone who loves horses and can read should take on at least one Dick Francis mystery novel. Francis is perhaps the world's most prolific (and best?) writer on fictional horse-related topics. Each of his mysteries revolves around some aspect of horses: breeding, racing, veterinary, trading, etc. He uses his fictional plots to impart his vast equine knowledge to readers in an enjoyable way. And Knockdown is as good an example as any.

In Knockdown, street-wise Jonah Dereham is an independent and honorable bloodstock agent (British terminology for horse trader), a profession not known for ethical practices. Dereham learned his horse knowledge in his prior career as a jockey, and is now hired by rich American woman, Kerry Sanders to buy a horse at auction. In the parking lot after their successful bid, two thugs oddly demand that the horse now be sold to them at a higher price--and then enforce their demand by clubbing Jonah on the head, the first in a series of knockdowns to come.

The mystery is on. What is so special about this horse? Why not buy the horse in the auction instead of extorting it from the new owners just minutes later? Who is this Kerry Sanders and who was the horse really for?

Before he unravels the mess, Dereham suffers thru harassment, arson, threats to his alcoholic brother, Crispin, and more violent knockdowns. He meets the love interest, air traffic controller Sophie Randolph, when his mysteriously loose horse dashes across the highway, causing her to crash her car. Jonah tries to make things right for Sophie, but she ends up doing as much for him: once even setting his chronically dislocating shoulder after yet another encounter with the bad guys. Knockdown is rigid formula fiction that works. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.

Perhaps a TKO but not a knockout, 4+ stars
This is a solid Dick Francis novel with interesting characters (esp. the supporting cast), a bigger than life hero, a mystery, and lots of IMHO fascinating information on a lesser-known aspect of the racing sport--the bloodstock agent (perhaps called horse trader or agent outside of the British Commonwealth). It also has a modicum of love interest, the long-suffering of the hero, his triumph at the end, but with some pathos too. The ending was a bit too pat for me--not readily believable IMHO--regarding Crispin--though I suppose stranger things have happened. There is a fair amount of description of Crispin's alcoholism, but today (the book is over 30 years old) the hero would probably be considered co-dependent. This work may not be Francis' best, but it's quite enjoyable--certainly not his worst book. My favorite quote in it is: "when success could breed envy even in friends, in enemies it could raise spite of Himalayan proportions." Enjoy!

Dick Francis is one of a kind
I will make no secret of the fact that Dick Francis is my favorite thriller writer. I love good, economical prose, and he is a master at it. In his autobiography he said that he couldn't leave a sentence until it was the best sentence he could write, and it shows when he limns a character or a situation in a sentence or two where others would need a page.
Knockdown is not one of his very best, but even second-rate Francis beats the best of most writers. I won't outline the plot, as others have done so, bet simply suggest very strongly that you read it.