One of my favorite Dick Francis novels, Flying Finish is the story of Henry Grey, a reluctant earl's son who is forced to do a job he hates to justify his few moments of freedom on horses and in the air. An argument with his sister forces him to acknowledge his own bitterness and he starts on the road to independence by quitting and asking a friend for a job on an air horse transport. On his flights all over the world he puts into practice all that he had learned at his desk job, meets a curvy Italian shopgirl, and learns to be wary of the requisite psychopath with whom he must work. He starts to think life isn't all that bad which is of course the moment everything goes wrong. He finds himself flying for his life, desperate to save his pilot friend and get back to his near-dying girl. ( )

Classic Dick Francis, short taught and thrilling all the way. Horses are again only nominally involved.

A Lord's son Henry Grey is distant and self controlled, but also not interested in the social conventions of being aristocracy, and prefers to hold a proper job, earning enough money to indulge in his secret passion of flying. Fed up with being stuck behind a desk he takes a new job with a horse transport company, and quicky discovers there are some shady characters in the transport business. However he also meets an Italien girl Gabrielle and experiences true love at first sight. You can guess the rest of the predictable plot, but it is well written and interesting to find out just how he manages.

Very enjoyable thriller, nothing special though. The description of the falling love scene is unusally accuate for Francis, even if the characters are otehrwise a bit sketchy. ( )

High drama and high flying in the air transport business. Amateur steeplechase jockey Henry Grey needs a change, so he takes a job escorting racehorses from England to all points globally. Everything seems straightforward enough -- until some of his co-workers disappear, and others turn suspiciously nasty. A simple bit of smuggling? Or something more sinister? ( )