Dick Francis wrote 37 novels of his own (1962–2010), almost all standalone thrillers set in the world of British horse racing, each narrated by a different first-person protagonist. He also wrote two short recurring-character series: Sid Halley (a former jockey turned private investigator, 4 books) and Kit Fielding (a championship jockey, 2 books). Since his death in 2010, his son Felix Francis has continued writing Dick Francis–branded novels, including further Sid Halley entries. Start with Dead Cert (1962) if you want the true beginning, or Odds Against (1965) if you want to start with his best-known recurring hero.
Who Was Dick Francis?
Dick Francis was a Welsh-born jockey who became one of the best-known crime novelists in the world without ever setting a book outside the racing industry that made him famous. Born Richard Stanley Francis in 1920, he became champion National Hunt jockey in the 1953–54 season and rode as the Queen Mother’s jockey — a career that ended dramatically in 1956 when his mount collapsed just yards from winning the Grand National. He turned to writing shortly after, publishing his autobiography The Sport of Queens in 1957 and his first novel, Dead Cert, in 1962.
What set Francis apart wasn’t just the racing backdrop — it was the range of narrators he used to explore it. Almost every Dick Francis novel is told through the eyes of a different profession: a pilot, a painter, a wine merchant, a glassblower, a TV weatherman, a bloodstock agent. Racing sits at the center of the plot, but the narrator’s outside expertise is usually what solves the crime. Francis credited his wife, Mary, as an essential research partner throughout his career; she died in 2000, and Francis published his final solo novel not long after, later co-writing his last few books with his son Felix. Dick Francis died in February 2010 at age 89, having written more than 40 internationally bestselling titles translated into dozens of languages.
Dick Francis Standalone Novels in Order
These are the heart of his bibliography — self-contained thrillers you can read in any order, though publication order lets you watch his craft develop across five decades.
- Dead Cert (1962) — An amateur jockey investigates after his friend dies in a steeplechase fall that looks less and less like an accident.
- Nerve (1964) — A jump jockey fights back after a whispering campaign accuses him of losing his nerve.
- For Kicks (1965) — An Australian horse breeder goes undercover as a stable lad to expose a race-fixing ring.
- Flying Finish (1966) — A restless aristocrat takes a job flying racehorses across Europe and stumbles into a smuggling operation.
- Blood Sport (1967) — An American intelligence agent is pulled into a case of horse theft and international fraud.
- Forfeit (1968) — A racing journalist investigates a fixed race while privately caring for his disabled wife.
- Enquiry (1969) — A jockey wrongly banned for race-fixing sets out to clear his name and expose who framed him.
- Rat Race (1970) — A private air-taxi pilot for the racing world becomes the target of sabotage and murder.
- Bonecrack (1971) — A young assistant trainer is caught between a gangster and the gangster’s son, who’s being forced into the saddle.
- Smokescreen (1972) — A film star travels to a South African stud farm and finds real danger behind a string of strange incidents.
- Slay Ride (1973) — A Jockey Club investigator heads to Norway to find a missing jockey and uncovers a darker conspiracy.
- Knockdown (1974) — A bloodstock agent digs into corruption running through the horse-sales business.
- High Stakes (1975) — A toy inventor and racehorse owner turns detective when his trainers turn out to be crooked.
- In the Frame (1976) — A painter is drawn into an art-fraud scheme tangled up with racehorse insurance claims.
- Risk (1977) — An accountant and amateur jockey is kidnapped after getting too close to a financial fraud.
- Trial Run (1978) — An aristocrat is sent to Moscow ahead of the Olympics to investigate a threat with racing-world ties.
- Reflex (1980) — A jockey turned amateur photographer uncovers a blackmail scheme hidden in old negatives.
- Twice Shy (1981) — Two brothers, a physics teacher and a former jockey, are pulled into danger over a stolen racing computer system.
- Banker (1982) — A merchant banker gets entangled in a stud farm investment that turns out to be anything but safe.
- The Danger (1983) — A kidnap-negotiation specialist is called in for a spree of abductions across the racing world.
- Proof (1984) — A wine merchant investigates fraud and deception connected to a racing yard.
- Hot Money (1987) — A jockey is pulled into his wealthy father’s chaos after someone starts trying to kill members of the family.
- The Edge (1988) — An undercover investigator rides a cross-Canada train carrying racehorses to catch a saboteur before it’s too late.
- Straight (1989) — A jockey inherits his late brother’s gem-importing business and finds it’s been used for smuggling.
- Longshot (1990) — A survival writer hired to ghostwrite a trainer’s biography discovers the job is far more dangerous than expected.
- Comeback (1991) — A diplomat investigates a veterinary scandal threatening an old friend’s practice.
- Driving Force (1992) — A horse-transport company owner investigates smuggling after one of his drivers turns up dead.
- Decider (1993) — An architect and demolition expert gets pulled into a family battle over the future of a struggling racecourse.
- Wild Horses (1994) — A film director making a movie about an old racing scandal starts uncovering secrets that are still very much alive.
- To the Hilt (1996) — An artist is dragged into his stepfather’s financial scandal and a hunt for missing funds.
- 10 lb. Penalty (1997) — A young man working on his father’s political campaign survives repeated attempts on his life.
- Second Wind (1999) — A TV weatherman’s storm-chasing holiday flight turns into a fight for his life back home in England.
- Shattered (2000) — A glassblower investigates the death of a friend connected to a missing, dangerous videotape.
- Dead Heat (2007, with Felix Francis) — A racecourse chef investigates a mass poisoning at a race-day banquet.
- Silks (2008, with Felix Francis) — A barrister takes on the defense of a jockey accused of murder — and starts investigating the case himself.
- Even Money (2009, with Felix Francis) — A bookmaker’s estranged father resurfaces and drags old family secrets back into the light.
- Crossfire (2010, with Felix Francis) — A wounded soldier returns home from Afghanistan and investigates threats to his mother’s stables.
This was Francis’s final novel — he died a few months after its publication.
Sid Halley Series in Order
Sid Halley is Francis’s most enduring recurring character: a champion steeplechase jockey whose career ends when he loses a hand in a racing accident, forcing him to reinvent himself as a private investigator. The character proved popular enough to outlive Dick Francis himself.
- Odds Against (1965) — Halley reluctantly takes his first case as an investigator and gets a violent introduction to the job.
- Whip Hand (1979) — Halley digs into a doping scandal that puts him back in danger from the sport he used to ride in.
- Come to Grief (1995) — Halley investigates a string of brutal horse mutilations with a suspect he can barely believe.
- Under Orders (2006) — Halley looks into the murder of a jockey and finds corruption reaching into the sport’s top levels.
- Refusal (2013, by Felix Francis) — Halley is pressured to look away from race-fixing — and refuses.
- Hands Down (2022, by Felix Francis) — Halley returns for a new investigation tangled up in old racing-world grudges.
- Dark Horse (2025, by Felix Francis) — The most recent entry in the series.
- The Chase (2026, by Felix Francis) — A newly announced Sid Halley novel.
Kit Fielding Series in Order
A much shorter run than Sid Halley — just two books — following championship jockey Kit Fielding.
- Break In (1985) — Fielding is drawn into a bitter feud between his own family and his twin sister’s in-laws.
- Bolt (1986) — Fielding investigates a string of suspicious deaths among top racehorses tied to a French arms deal.
Felix Francis’s Continuations
After Dick Francis’s death in 2010, Felix Francis kept the “Dick Francis” name on new novels for several years before eventually publishing under his own name only. Beyond the Sid Halley entries above, his other continuation novels include:
- Gamble (2011)
- Bloodline (2012)
- Pulse (2017)
- Crisis (2018)
- Guilty Not Guilty (2019)
- Iced (2021)
- No Reserve (2023)
- Syndicate (2024)
Felix Francis also created his own original trilogy, the Jefferson Hinkley series, following an undercover investigator for the British Horseracing Authority:
- Damage (2014)
- Front Runner (2015)
- Triple Crown (2016)
Non-Fiction and Short Fiction
Beyond the novels, Dick Francis published three non-fiction titles: his autobiography The Sport of Queens (1957), the edited collection The Racing Man’s Bedside Book (1969, with John Welcome), and a biography, A Jockey’s Life: The Biography of Lester Piggott (1986). He also released one short story collection, Field of Thirteen (1998), gathering thirteen racing-world mystery stories.
Where Should You Start?
If you want the true beginning of Francis’s career, start with Dead Cert — it set the template every later book would follow: an outsider with a specific skill set pulled into a racing-world crime he’s uniquely positioned to solve. If you’d rather meet his most famous recurring character right away, start the Sid Halley series with Odds Against. And if you’re mainly curious what all the fuss is about without committing to a long list, Whip Hand, Proof, and Reflex are frequently named among his strongest standalone work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Dick Francis still alive? No. Dick Francis died on February 14, 2010, at age 89.
Who is writing new Dick Francis books now? His son, Felix Francis, has continued publishing novels connected to his father’s world — some initially under the “Dick Francis” name, and more recently under his own name, including new entries in the Sid Halley series.
Do I need to read Dick Francis books in order? No. Nearly all of his novels are standalone stories with different narrators and no shared continuity. The exceptions are the Sid Halley and Kit Fielding books, which do build on earlier entries in their own runs.
What’s the best Dick Francis book to start with? Dead Cert if you want his first novel, or Odds Against if you want to meet Sid Halley, his best-known character.
Are the Felix Francis books as good as the originals? That’s subjective, but many longtime readers report enjoying them as a natural continuation of the style and world, even while noting they’re a different author’s voice.
Does every Dick Francis book involve horse racing? Yes. Racing is the one constant across all of his fiction — what changes book to book is the narrator’s outside profession and how it collides with that world.
The Bottom Line
Dick Francis is one of the rare thriller writers who built a decades-long career almost entirely on standalones, and that’s exactly what makes his catalog so easy to dip into — pick any title, any decade, and you’re getting a self-contained mystery with an insider’s view of horse racing and a narrator with a skill set you won’t see repeated in the next book. If you do want a character to follow across multiple books, Sid Halley is where the series impulse actually lives, and — thanks to Felix Francis — his story still isn’t over.
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