Field of Thirteen (Mass Market Paperback)

by Dick Francis (Author) "Time has an uncanny way of laughing at fiction..." (more)
Key Phrases: old nagsman, racing writer, small trainer, Jules Harlow, Gypsy Joe, Patrick Green (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
This first collection of short stories by Dick Francis (author of 10 Lb. Penalty and more than 30 other horseracing mysteries) pulls together five new tales with eight that have appeared scattered in periodicals over the last three decades. One of the pleasures of his stories is witnessing the breadth and variety within Francis's racetrack milieu. In "Dead on Red," a jealous jockey named Davey Rockman hires Emil Jacques, a French assassin and gun collector, to kill the famed rider who stole his job; but Rockman is haunted by his deed much in the same way as is the protagonist in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." "Raid at Kingdom Hill" tells of Tricksy Wilcox's scheme for a not-so-bright bomb scare, a plan that still might yield the payoff of a lifetime. "Collision Course" is free of murder but frames a delightful conflict between an out-of-work newspaperman and a bounder whose faux manners threaten to bring him down at the peak of his racing syndicate career. The Kentucky Derby story, "The Gift," follows Fred Collyer, a drunken writer who overhears plans for a major racing swindle and struggles against alcohol to publish the story by his deadline. And the collection ends with a what-if story called "Haig's Death" that examines the consequences of the sudden passing of Christopher Haig, an animal feed consultant and race-meeting judge.

Poe, who most historians of literature credit as the creator of the short story, declared that a good short story should have nothing extraneous. Francis's stories, for the most part, obey Poe's dictum. Each character and description fits tightly into an unfolding plan so that the mystery or twist is revealed with a satisfying economy of words. While Field of 13 will appeal to Francis loyalists, newcomers, too, will find much to relish in the short fiction of this mystery grand master. --Patrick O'Kelley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Though nearly two score of his novels have come to print, Francis has published only eight short stories in his 41 years as a bestselling author. That octet, composed mostly in the 1970s and initially appearing in various journals (Sports Illustrated, the Times of London, etc.), is reprinted here, along with five new tales, each introduced in brief by Francis. There's not a slacker among them, though few champions either. The earliest yarn, "Carrot for a Chestnut," dating from 1970 (eight years after Francis's first novel), is typical, presenting a morally ordered universe in which malefactors get their due, albeit commonly through indirect means. Here, a jockey who bends a race by feeding a horse a drugged carrot receives his comeuppance by losing his concentration as a result of his crime and getting involved in a nasty accident; as in most of the stories, there's a light twist to the ending. Horse racing figures in every entry, of course. Sometimes it's the focus of a crime?as in "Blind Chance," in which a blind boy picks up on how bettors are getting inside info on races with photo finishes. Sometimes, it's only background, as in "Collision Course," about how a fired newspaper editor hoists poetic justice upon a horrid restaurateur/horse trainer. Most of the stories are superficially clever, but below the quick plotting there's emotional depth; in "Spring Fever," for instance, Francis plumbs the innocent desperation of unrequited December-May love. And throughout there is Francis's voice, strong, smart, ironic, developed even at the beginning but maturing in timbre as he hones his skill. Even more than the horse racing, this voice is the tie that binds these 13 tales into a charmed entertainment.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 289 pages
• Publisher: Jove (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 051512575X
• ISBN-13: 978-0515126099
• ASIN: 0515126098
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 3.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,261,693 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty darn good!, September 27, 2000

By	MagnoliaSouth - See all my reviews

This review is from: Field of Thirteen (Hardcover)

This is the very first Dick Francis book I've ever read, recommended to me by my father. I certainly have enjoyed the flow of the characterizations, plots, and twists. The short stories are reminiscent of the Hitchcockian type plots. Slime deserves slime. After having read these stories, I am now anxious to read a novel of his. I give it a thumbs up and recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the Hitchcock Mystery Magazine short stories.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars as good as ever, February 16, 2000

By A Customer

Short stories normally aren't my favourites. But these 13 are great. Every one of them.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Dick Francis: great characterization & mysteries, October 13, 1999

By	Kathleen Burke (Pleasanton, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Field of Thirteen (Hardcover)

I've read ALL of Dick Francis and these stories are in the classic Dick Francis style that we all know: crisply written, tight plots, good characters, and the same suspense that you find in his full-length novels. His horse details are very, very accurate and, even if you don't know horses, you leave with a lot of knowledge about them. Most of all, these stories are great entertainment.