Risk

Name: Risk
Brand: Blackstone Audiobooks
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)
Author: Dick Francis
ISBN: 9781481559539

Author: Dick Francis

Narrator: Ralph Cosham

Unabridged: 6 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

Published: 08/17/2011

Categories: Fiction, Mystery & Detective

Synopsis

Roland Britten, accountant and amateur jockey, awakens one morning to find he can't move his hands—because he is tied up with netting, held captive where no light penetrates and no amount of yelling will get any attention. But why? He knew that this was the latest in a series of events that had begun when he decided to ride in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, a race second only to the Grand National in the lives of British steeplechase riders. As an amateur jockey, Roland had pleased no one when he took Tapestry past the finish line first in what turned out to be the worst Gold Cup in history. As an accountant whose clientele included horse owners and jockeys alike, he also knew more about the private financial affairs of the racing world than any other person on the racecourse. Was winning the Gold Cup cause enough for his kidnapping? Or was it his knowledge of the books?

About Dick Francis

Dick Francis was born in South Wales in 1920. He was a young rider of distinction winning awards and trophies at horse shows throughout the United Kingdom. At the outbreak of World War II he joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot, flying fighter and bomber aircraft including the Spitfire and Lancaster. He became one of the most successful postwar steeplechase jockeys, winning more than 350 races and riding for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. After his retirement from the saddle in 1957, he published an autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write more than forty acclaimed books. A three-time Edgar Award winner, he also received the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association’s Cartier Diamond Dagger, was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, and was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2000. He died in February 2010, at age eighty-nine, and remains among the greatest thriller writers of all time.

About Ralph Cosham

Geoffrey Howard (a.k.a. Ralph Cosham) (1936–2014) was a British journalist who changed careers to become a narrator and screen and stage actor. He performed in more than one hundred professional theatrical roles. His audiobook narrations were named “Audio Best of the Year” by Publishers Weekly, and he won seven AudioFile Earphones Awards, and in 2013 he won the coveted Audie Award for Best Mystery Narration for his reading of Louise Penny’s The Beautiful Mystery.

Reviews

Goodreads review by James on July 31, 2018

This is another fairly typical Dick Francis novel. The protagonist, Roland Britten, is an accountant by trade and an amateur jockey who loves to race. Like most Francis lead characters, Britten is single, a man who lives within himself and who few people know really well. He shares the courage and s......more

Goodreads review by Harry on August 04, 2012

What is there to say about Dick Francis? As I think about all of his books (yes, this review covers all of his books, and yes I've read them all) I think about a moral ethical hero, steeped in intelligence and goodness embroiled in evil machinations within British horse racing society - either direc......more

Goodreads review by John on January 24, 2023

Roland is an accountant and amateur jockey. After winning the Gold Cup he is mysteriously kidnapped. He wakes up in a claustrophobic space in darkness. Roland has no idea why he was kidnapped. Eventually he escapes from the sailboat he is on and helped by a middle aged head mistress. He finds himsel......more

Goodreads review by Glen on November 01, 2019

A young man with the hobby of being a weekend jockey is kidnapped, and taken away on a boat. Finally, he escapes, only to be kidnapped again. He has no idea what's going on, and tries to investigate. Very good, generates a lot of tension, only somewhat dated.......more

Goodreads review by Gilbert on June 17, 2021

This is one of the best titles for a Dick Francis mystery. We’re all familiar with the normal risk in his adventures—the racing related risks and the mystery-solving risks. But this time, the whole thing revolves around accountant risks. Didn’t think that accountants take a lot of risks? Read this b......more

Quotes

“Francis captures our attention and holds us spellbound.” New York Times Book Review

“A positive genius.” Time

“Few match Francis for dangerous flights of fancy and pure, inventive menace.” Boston Herald

“One of the best mystery writers around.” Saturday Review