Abstract
Unlike many of his crime writer colleagues, Dick Francis’ series develops not around a common detective but around a common theme, namely the world of horse-racing. In his forty-plus racing thrillers, he focuses on various elements of the world of horse-racing. These novels combine Francis’ in-depth familiarity from his experiences as a champion jump jockey with thorough research into the specialty explored in each novel. Three of his novels, Blood Sport (1967), In the Frame (1976) and Twice Shy (1981), were adapted to film in 1989, by Deirdre Friel and Harvey Hart.
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Suggested Reading/Works Cited
Francis, Dick, The Sport of Queens: The Autobiography of Dick Francis (London: Michael Joseph, 1957).
Macdonald, Gina, ‘Dick Francis’ in British Mystery and Thriller Writers Since 1940: First Series, ed. by Bernard Benstock and Thomas F. Stanley (Detroit: Gale, 1989), pp. 136–155.
Schaffer, Rachel, ‘Dick Francis’s Six-Gun Mystique’, Clues: A Journal of Detection, 21.2 (2000), 17–26.
Sudgen, Stephen, A Dick Francis Companion: Characters, Horses, Plots, Settings and Themes (Jefferson: McFarland, 2008).
Wagner, Elaine, ‘The Theme of Paternal Rejection in the Novels of Dick Francis’, Clues: A Journal of Detection, 18.1 (1997), 7–13.
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Effron, M. (2020). Dick Francis (1920–2010), 1962: Dead Cert. In: Miskimmin, E. (eds) 100 British Crime Writers. Crime Files. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-31902-9_53
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-31902-9_53
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