I've yet to read a Dick Francis book I didn't enjoy. His leading men all tend to be kind of the same guy, but it's a character that works. Freddie Croft is tough, but not too tough... smart, but not too smart.. and somewhat of a reluctant ladie's man. I always find myself picturing Francis's leading men as the Daniel Craig version of James Bond.

But enough about Freddie! The story here is pretty solid and interesting, even to someone who doesn't know patooie about horse-racing. Everything is from Freddie's point of view... there are no sneak peeks into the mind of the bad guys or what's happening while Freddie is elsewhere. I found that quite refreshing. I think too many suspense novels fall into that multiple point-of-view trap and it takes something away from the story. I found myself trusting the people Freddie trusted and feeling ambivalent about those he wasn't sure of, and I think it added that extra zing of emotion to the big reveal at the finish. I highly recommend Dick Francis if you're looking for something a little different from today's usual mystery/suspense story.

Freddie Croft, is an ex-jockey who owns and operates a horse transportation service. When an employee fails to follow the rules and picks up a hitchhiker Freddie fires him. But it is the hitchhiker who dies in the truck and Freddie is left holding a loaded gun he doesn't know exists.
Dick Francis can take you into the world of English racing as no other writer can, introduce new and deadly means of evil and lead you to cover each page looking for clues, which are buried as you follow his hero over many courses to an exciting finish with surprising results.
Pick up any Frances, you're in for a good read.
Nash Black, author of SINS OF THE FATHERS and QUALIFYING LAPS.

Horse boxes in the UK are horse trailers here. The main character, Freddie Croft, is in the business of transporting horses. He discharges a driver who picked up a hitch-hiker against his express direction, the hitch-hiker having come to his notice because he ended up dead.

Freddie had been a steeple chase jockey. There was less to be nervous about in the horse transport business than the business of being a jockey and looking for mounts. His customers tended to be a case of repeat business, he had to be less concerned with rivals than he had been formerly.

A faux employee, sent by the jockey club investigator, is embedded in Freddie's operation as a replacement driver and an assistant investigator. Stamina and adaptability are essential to the job. Freddie is called away from a social event when one of his men, Jogger, is discovered dead.

Next a Lebanese-Canadian driver is hired, whom his sister discovers subsequently to be over-qualified for such a position. He seeks his sister's aid to analyze a substance he discovers in the horse box in which the first dead man had been riding.

Freddie is unconscious and in the water in the vicinity of Southampton. He doesn't know how he came to be there. Following his rescue he discovers his vehicles and his house have been ransacked, vandalized. His business has a computer virus. It seems that the hitch-hiker had been some sort of a courier, carrying a medium for a virus of the biological sort.

The first dead man, Ogden, had been unemployed for four years. He was used and had let himself be used in his desperation. The solution to the mystery is that one of the customers wanted to win at all cost. Old Jogger, the second dead man, had figured it all out, but he gave hints to many people of his discoveries. There were at least three actors involved in the various misdeeds and Jogger had clashed with some of them.

This 1992 mystery focuses, as do all of Francis' books, on some part of the racing industry. This time it is the horse transport business. Freddie Croft had been a successful jump jockey (like Francis himself) for many years. When he retired from racing he began a transport business based from the farm he had inherited in Pixhill, a popular horse training area. The business had begun to flourish but as the novel opens Croft has discovered that two of his drivers had broken company policy by picking up a hitchhiker who died during the ride.

As the story progresses Croft's problems increase, he is attacked, kidnapped, his property vandalized, his computer hacked, an employee killed and to add to the aggravation his drivering force is succumbing to the flu that is sweeping the area.

As is the case in all of Francis' work, his hero is a flawed individual, a loner with a secret problem from a dysfunctional family. He bravely and stoically endures his trials, finds romance and a way to cope with his burden along the way just as Francis' heroes all do. Despite the formulistic nature of Francis' work he once again manages to breathe life into his characters and to make the story come alive. Even though a longtime reader of his books knows quite well were the story is going there are always surprises along the way.

This would appeal to fans of mysteries in general as well as horse enthusists. The mysteries are clever, orginal and fairly laid out with all the necessary clues for the reader to follow.

Before the advance into my daily life of computers, my two favourite subjects were trucking and horses, so when I picked up a copy of Driving Force, I was instantly absorbed. This had everything.. even, to my surprise, computers!

I'm usually more of a Science Fiction/Fantasy buff, but I do enjoy a good mystery now and again, so long as: 1) I don't know who the culprit is in the first five pages; 2) It doesn't start out with "It was a dark and stormy night." 3) When the solution finally comes it doesn't present something implausible, impossible, or downright silly; and 4) It doesn't leave too many loose ends.

This book satisfies all of the above.