- Paperback: 280 pages
- Publisher: PAN Macmillan Adult MM; 17th edition, revised edition (Jun 6 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0330029665
- ISBN-13: 978-0330029667
- Product Dimensions: 1.9 x 11.4 x 18.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 141 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #382,078 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
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
Ingram
Assigned to fly four racing buffs to the track, pilot Matt Shore is forced to make an emergency landing, and he soon finds out that the mob has been tampering with the horseracing industry. Reprint.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Francis takes to the air,
By
This review is from: Rat Race (Hardcover)
First Sentence: I picked four of them up at Whit Waltham in the new Cherokee Six 300 that never got a chance to grow old.
Matt Shore's life and career as a pilot have been on a downward spiral. His latest job is with a flying taxi service for racecourses and his first flight ends with the plane exploding after he lands from sensing a problem with the aircraft. Although all the passengers are safe, it's another black mark on Matt's career and he wants to know why. Although I've not read this particular book since January 1977, it reminds me why I became such of fan of Dick Francis' writing. The protagonist, Matt Shore, is so appealing and one of a style I appreciate'the 'common' man caught up in an uncommon situation. He is not perfect. He is intelligent without being egotistical, attractive without being overbearing, and heroic without being macho. And, he gets the girl, but you know there are painful incidences along the way. In spite of the opening portent, the story captivates you from the very first page and never lets you go. The pacing between suspense and respite is every effective. The writing is masterful'not a term I use lightly'and imminently readable. I was surprised how much of the plot I remembered after all these years, and that's a real tribute to the author. Whether Dick or Mary Francis was the primary author of this, and the other books by Dick Francis, I frankly don't care. All I know is that it was a great read when I read it the first time, and it is a great read now. RAT RACE (Ama Sleu-Matt Shore-England-Cont) ' VG+ Francis, Dick ' 10th in series Harper & Row, ©1971, US Hardcover ' ISBN: 978-0060113223
4.0 out of 5 stars
Usual story,
By Fax (Tokyo, Suginami-ku Japan) - See all my reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews) 9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
this is a pretty good dick francis,,
By clifford "akitonmyers" - Published on Amazon.com
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,
By Chai - Published on Amazon.com
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,
By Fax - Published on Amazon.com
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.
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