Rat Race [Paperback]

Dick Francis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 1988

Matt Shore, flying for a small air-taxi firm, takes five passengers on a routine flight to the races and back. On their return journey, in the summer sky, lies death - a fate only avoided by instinct and Matt's sharp reactions. But which of the passengers is the target? In his efforts to unravel the mystery, Matt finds himself being sucked into a terrifying fight for survival.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“THE BEST THRILLER WRITER GOING.”—The Atlantic Monthly



“FRANCIS IS A GENIUS.”—Los Angeles Times



“[THE] MASTER OF CRIME FICTION AND EQUINE THRILLS.”—Newsday



“DICK FRANCIS IS A WONDER.”—The Cleveland Plain Dealer



“FEW THINGS ARE MORE CONVINCING THAN DICK FRANCIS AT A FULL GALLOP.”—Chicago Tribune

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Matt Shore was an experienced pilot. He’d done it all. From big jets to flying in supplies to war zones. So when he gets a job ferrying high class punters around England’s race courses he might be forgiven for expecting the quiet life. But then his plane explodes in a massive fireball. He could have been in it. Some quiet life.

Instead he’s landed in the middle of a nightmare world where there is big money at stake. Very big money.

From then on he finds himself hurtling down a tortuous trail where people are not all they appear, and all around him is sudden bloody death...

‘Impossible to stop reading’ Daily Telegraph

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Group (January 25, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0718130391
• ISBN-13: 978-0718130398
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,362,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dick Francis was the author of more than forty acclaimed books. Among his numerous awards were three Edgar Awards, the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger, and the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award. He died in February 2010.

Felix Francis has assisted with the research of many of the Dick Francis novels and is the coauthor of Dead Heat, Silks, and Even Money. He lives in England.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars this is a pretty good dick francis,, April 14, 2005

By 

clifford "akitonmyers" (Portland, OR, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rat Race (Mass Market Paperback)

It's kind of strange, but every Dick Francis is pretty much the same. It's strange because only two of his many books have the same lead character. What Francis does is find a profession, research what may pertain to said profession, and then plop his readymade protagonist and story-line into this situation.

The gift that Francis has is that as a reader I really don't mind that I have seen this plot and character twenty times before. The authors prose is elegant in its way and it allows the reader easy access to a world that is fascinating to visit. Whenever I think of Francis as an author I think of Cocteau, the French director who built worlds where poets were the rock stars of society. Francis does this with jockeys. Every time you open up one of his books, the jockey is on the highest echelon of culture even if the other characters don't realize this.

Rat Race is either a fine place to start on Francis if you have not read him before, or it is one of his more captivating short novels if you are looking for a next title in the series. If you want his best book in my opinion, try 'In the Frame.'

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dick Francis with a difference, August 9, 2006

By 

Chai (Toronto, Ontario) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rat Race (Mass Market Paperback)

For readers like me who find most of Dick Francis's books a little chilling, this early (1971) entry to his collection is delightfully different from the others. As pilot Matt Shore investigates a series of bombings apparently aimed at one of his passengers, famous jockey Colin Ross, the points of similarity to Francis's later race-course thrillers will be obvious: a manly, laconic hero; race-course settings; a good dose of violence towards the end. But the characters here are drawn with a warmth and humanity too often missing in Francis's later works, and the writer seems truly interested in their relationships. I love the moment when the hard-as-nails trainer suddenly turns on one of the other passengers in Matt's small plane and tells him off for his lamentable self-absorption--only to find that the slightly-crooked jockey she's been at odds with throughout the story is cheering her on; the scene in the attic of a stately ducal mansion, where Matt finds the gentle and kindly, if somewhat befuddled, Duke of Wessex absorbed in playing with his ten-year-old nephew and the model trains they both love; the picnic Matt shares on a riverbank with the famous jockey and his sisters, who generously open their family to include a near-stranger even while they deal with their grief at knowing that one of the young women is fatally ill--all those and any number of other moments lift this from the deadliness of the standard contemporary crime thriller into something more meaningful, and make this a book worth reading, or even reading again.

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Usual story, June 20, 2000

By 

Fax (Tokyo, Suginami-ku Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rat Race (Mass Market Paperback)

If you are a Dick Francis fan, this book will neither disappoint nor surprise you. It's more or less like all his other books--similar hero (average to himself, to those around him stoic, tough, cool under pressure) in the standard situation (doing his job, which gets interfered with, when the hero feels called upon to take care of the interferers, which act reveals to him his true personality, plus down-toned love story). This one involves airplanes--also not unusual for a Dick Francis book. I sound critical. But I really enjoyed it--thus the stars--and though it isn't likely to burst anyone's literary bubbles or change their lives, it certainly provides an entertaining and exciting couple of hours. Which is the objective.