Enquiry

By: Dick Francis

Narrated by: Ralph Cosham

Jockey Kelly Hughes and trainer Dexter Cranfield have been barred from racing - a devastating event for them both. The charge at the secret enquiry? Throwing a race for personal profit. It is a vicious frame-up and, worse, they have nowhere to turn to clear their names. Still Hughes refuses to take the phony verdict lying down - even though his personal enquiry might have him lying down permanently...©1969 by Dick Frances (P)1996 by Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"[Has] everything required in a modern thriller…an intricate plot that unravels skillfully, mayhem, sex, suspense, excitement, and surprise denouements." ( New York Times Book Review)
"As usual, Dick Francis is superb in his depiction of the horse-racing world, full of greed and betrayal. Equally superb is the clarity of expression that Geoffrey Howard brings to the novel….The pacing is flawless." ( AudioFile)

Incredible story telling

This is in the very top of literature. There’s a broad genre of those that are wrongfully convicted and this sets the standard. It’s a tough type of book to start: you know the better the author, the more you will empathize with the wronged and the more anger and desperation and other negative emotions you’ll feel along the journey to possible vindication. Francis handles this the best. In first person, Kelly Hughes tells his story from the rigged enquiry forward with efficiency and excellent insight and some dry humor. He demonstrates the best in human agency in response to such hardship, with a cornucopia of wit and viewpoints along the way .....if you’re new to Dick Francis, this is a great book to start with.

Wonderfully entertaining, professionally paced. An excellent read.

Narrator does a bang up job of transporting the listener to the moments unfolding. Writing is intelligent and engaging with a bright mix of characters brought to life with blooming relatable language.

Love these old classics

Not everything translates well to future generations, but all of the horse information of days gone by is a real gift. The English life and love of nature really translated always in his books. Basically knowing how those generations thought and felt and acted or at least what their ideal was is just as informative and worthwhile, I’ve always felt.

Its always good for everybody to understand how past generations, your grandfather, your father, even your back ass country cousins today, think. His books are an old fashioned green man’s guide to being a horse guy.

I always loved how much he researched, and had his math and science and all the boxes ticked for the involvement in the story, not waiting till the end, like some authors, due to explain it all. Well thought out and presented.

But it is always so interesting how he viewed women; they’re either in love with you, crazy, too young, to old, every now and then he would have a woman who actually passed the Bechdel test, but probably in the context that he lived and worked that was how people acted and thought in those days, and he didn’t ask the women what they thought most of the time. There simplicity is just a little too empty for me a lot of the time.
His books are also a good indication of how his generation saw the many different social revolutions in the 60s. He’s always a very kind writer at the heart of it though, but not understanding of anyone, other than the norm for him.
There was a real loving for that old system of the big house and then the working class people and always the smart kid who could make it up through the ranks, always the hero, which is a very American vision interestingly enough.
Those smart kids who did make it up through the ranks from poverty in the 60s in America really shut the door for later generations harder than previous generations ever have or at least are trying to.
His views on snobbery that he presents to his love interest then go against everything he outline of the economics he revered.
His disgust at sexual fetishes is laced with kindness, and with the majority of society has not much changed in the over 50 years since this book was written. So it’s still not a bad presentation of a really good mystery. It’s always great how he doesn’t even give you a lot of hints of who’s done it or what he’s thinking and he just gives you the facts. Just the facts ma’am. It’s a true good mystery in the classic style that I love.

One of his best

I have read almost all of Duck Francis’s books. First Audible. Really enjoyed! Probably listen more!!!

Great yarn

This novel is both well written and well performed. Pacing and plot are memorable.