Dick Francis: Slay Ride (UK 2014)

From the Publisher:
David Cleveland - an investigator for the Jockey Club - is sitting in a dinghy in a pleasant little fjord in Norway. He's here to help the Norwegians find out why Bob Sherman, a visiting English rider, has done a runner with the racehorse takings.

He thinks it'll be a straightforward job, and he'll get to spend some time with old friends. But when the dinghy is hit by a speedboat and Cleveland almost drowns, he realizes that there is more to this case than some missing money - especially when a dead body turns up.

Now Cleveland knows the stakes are dangerously high. A sensible man would leave it to the police and go back home to England.

Except, it turns out, that England isn't safe either...

Packed with intrigue and hair-raising suspense, Slay Ride is just one of the many blockbuster thrillers from legendary crime writer Dick Francis.

Dick Francis: Slay Ride. Penguin, ISBN: 9781405916752 (July, 2014), 304 p., £8.99.

Dick Francis: Slay Ride (USA 2004)

From the Publisher:
When a champion jockey disappears - right before a big race and the birth of his child - Investigator David Cleveland bets on foul play...

Dick Francis: Slay Ride. Berkley Books, ISBN: 0425196739 (April, 2004), 288 p., $6.99.

Dick Francis: Slay Ride (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
"One of the most reliable mystery writers working today." - San Diego Union-Tribune

Champion jockey Robert Sherman has disappeared right before he was to race in the National, which he was sure to win... and right before his wife was about to give birth.

A coincidence?
Perhaps.

But British investigator David Cleveland doesn't believe in coincidence he believes someone made Sherman disappear for a reason. Unfortunately, with every answer he gets, the body count rises. And if he's not careful, the next body just might be his own.

"In the world of mystery writing, Dick Francis stands head and shoulders above the rest. - The Ottawa Citizen

Dick Francis: Slay Ride. Jove Books, ISBN: 0515129267 (October, 2000), 219 p., $6.99.

Dick Francis: Slay Ride (USA 1991)

From the Publisher:
In search of a missing jockey, an English investigator goes to Norway and finds a tangled web of intrigue and murder...
British investigator David Cleveland hadn't come to Oslo dressed for the Norwegian weather. But he didn't know what cold really was until someone tried to drown him in a ford.

Of course, it could have been an accident that the speedboat cut David's dinghy into ribbons. Just as it could have been a coincidence that champion jockey Robert Sherman had disappeared from Norway right before the National, a race he was certain to win. And right before his wife was about to give birth.

But accident and coincidence couldn't explain the gruesome string of deaths that David Cleveland would find was meant to include his own...

Dick Francis: Slay Ride. Fawcett Crest, ISBN: 0449212718 (February, 1991), 267 p., $5.95.

Dick Francis: Slayride (USA ca. 1979)

From the Publisher:
In a long list of winners, Slayride "moves to the head of the list." - The New York Times Book Review

A British jockey disappears from a Norwegian racecourse... leaving behind a very pregnant wife, and vanishing without a trace. Was it by impuise or design... Or a smokescreen for something else altogether?

But for British investigator David Cleveland, any conclusion was impossible to prove. Especially when his one and only suspect turned up dead. All the clues pointed to a gruesome string of deaths... and his own seemed perilously close at hand.

"A BEST OF THE BEST OF DICK FRANCIS" - Los Angeles Times

Dick Francis: Slayride. New York: Pocket Books, ca. 1979, ISBN: 0671832719, 207 p., $2.25.

Dick Francis: Slayride (USA 1975)

From the Publisher:
"MOVES TO THE HEAD OF THE LIST" - The New York Times Book Review

A riveting thriller by the best-selling author of Forfeit, Dead Cert and For Kicks, SLAYRIDE brings together theft and murder, beatings and bombings, and British investigator David Cleveland in one of the year's best novels.

"Superior entertainment. Dick Francis' style like a quivering steel spring." - Boston Globe
"A BEST OF THE BEST OF DICK FRANCIS - Los Angeles Times
A Book-of-the-Month-Club Alternate
A Detective Book Club Selection

Dick Francis: Slayride. New York: Pocket Books, 1975, Standard Book Number: 671 78872 8, 207 p., $1.25.

Dick Francis: Slayride (USA 1973)

From the Publisher:
Here is the new Dick Francis -- and that's what all his many fans want to hear. It's fine, fast, fresh Dick Francis!
David Cleveland, official investigator for the English Jockey Club, thirty-three and hardy (which was, indeed, fortunate), had been sent to Norway to work with his friend Arne Kristiansen, official investigator of the Norwegian Jockey Club. Arne was investigating the disappearance of Bob Sherman, British steeplechase jockey, from the Ovrevoll track with the day's take. Norwegians are fond of English jockeys, but not when they turn out to be thieves.

The investigation began on water, on a fjord an hour out of Oslo. David and Arne were in a fiberglass dinghy. Arne, the native, was properly dressed for the occasion: David was not -- which became immensely more important when a speedboat came straight at them. "Hey." Arne shouted at the speedboat. "Look outl" He screamed at them in Norwegian -- then yelled to David, "Jump!"

Both men went over the side, into the rough icy water. David was a strong swimmer, but he knew the aver-age human being can live less than an hour in water of thirty-three degrees Fahrenheit. He also didn't know in which direction the nearest land was, and he couldn't see Arne anywhere.

Drowning is a cold Ionely death, so David began to swim. There was nothing else to do.

David didn't drown, but life in Norway continued to be shockingly dangerous as he proceeded in his investigation. An investigation which became of even more interest when he met Bob Sherman's lovely wife Emma.

Every Dick Francis is a very exciting reading adventure. Slayride will chill and thrill its readers around every icy curve.

Dick Francis: Slayride. A Harper Novel of Suspense. Harper & Row, ISBN: 0060113367 (December, 1973), 219 p., $5.95.

Dick Francis: Slay Ride (UK 1973)

From the Publisher:
David Cleveland, investigator for the Jockey Club, goes to Norway in response to an appeal from the executive of Oslo racecourse.

A British jockey, riding in Norway, has disappeared, and with him has gone a day's takings from the turnstiles. The Norwegian police have found no trace of him, nor have the British, and the case is being filed as just one more unsolved theft.

David Cleveland is a last resort. He goes without much expectation -- and finds himself in waters as dark and deep as the fjords.

Dick Francis's new novel has all the excitement and mastery of his genre which has made him a worldwide bestseller.

'Without the use of a superfluous word no one sets the scene more vividly than Mr Francis or keeps the reader in a more acute state of pleasurable agony.' The Daily Telegraph

Dick Francis: Slay Ride. Michael Joseph, ISBN: 0718111508 (October, 1973), 224 p., £?.??.