Product Description

When a champion jockey disappears--right before a big race and the birth of his child--Investigator David Cleveland bets on foul play.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5502001 in Books
• Published on: 1987-10
• Formats: Audiobook, Unabridged
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 6
• Binding: Audio Cassette

From the Inside Flap
"One of the greatest living suspense writers."
CBS RADIO
British investigator David Cleveland has come to Oslo to investigate a champion jockey's disappearance right before the National, a race he was certain to win. But he's almost drowned in a fjord for his troubles. David knows accident and coincidence couldn't begin to explain this little mishap or the oncoming gruesome string of deaths that David Cleveland would find was meant to include his own....

Customer Reviews

Good story and good characters
I listened to this book on tape, and initially I had to accustom myself to the Norwegian setting and accents. Once I had myself acclimated, I enjoyed it a great deal, although I will say that I "figured it out" faster than I do some mysteries.

What I liked, I think, was the slightly unique setting and the things about Northern European horse racing that I had not know before. I also thought the chracters were interesting and had some depth that is sometimes missing in Francis' books. There are some characters in this one that I have wondered about as you would with real people--what made them turn out this way? and what is going to happen to them afterwords?

Dunk in a fjord.
SLAY RIDE follows the normal Francis formula, but the life threatening assault on the hero, David Cleveland opens the story. This doesn't leave much time to develop the suspense that characterizes most Dick Francis novels. It was too easy to figure out "who-done-it", which spoils the fun, for the reader, of a mystery.
The betrayal by a friend is sad, but plodding like a hard run race that didn't make it. But by all means read SLAY RIDE for the interest of knowing an author who stands head above the rest at a low point, it gives you insight into his power of storytelling.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

horse racing and murder in Norway
British Jockey Club investigator David Cleveland travels to Norway investigating the disappearance of British jockey Robert Sherman. It's presumed that he'd stolen the day's take from the racecourse and vanished. However, neither he nor the money has turned up, and some of the evidence doesn't quite fit together.

Things get complicated fairly quickly, and instead of a straightforward case of theft, Cleveland finds himself with a murdered witness, and his own life in danger.

If you like horses and horse racing, you'll probably enjoy this (and all of Dick Francis's books, for that matter) more than I did. In Slayride, there's a lot of detail about the Norwegian racing world, and how it differs from, say, the British.

I enjoyed the logical unraveling of clues--my favorite type of mystery. At times, this made the book seem a bit plodding, as Cleveland followed false leads, but it also felt realistic.

Best, though, was the twists and turns. The reader gets to experience them along with Cleveland--that is, they're not telegraphed or obvious... at least not to me.

I tend to mildly enjoy Dick Francis's books, and Slayride was no exception. He does a good job of crafting a mystery, but I get bored with the horse stuff after a while. So he's an occasional read rather than an author I collect.