Dick Francis: For Kicks (UK 2014)

From the Publisher:
Daniel Roke owns a stud farm in Australia. He's young, smart, hard-working and desperate for some excitement - all of which makes him the ideal candidate for the Earl of October, who has come visiting.

The Earl is concerned about a horse-doping scandal that is destroying English racing. He wants to pay Daniel to come back with him, pose as a highly corruptible stable lad and discover who is behind it.

But when Daniel agrees, he doesn't realise just how close he'll have to get to find the truth.

Nor how determined the criminals will be to prevent him living long enough to tell anyone...

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

Dick Francis: For Kicks. Penguin, ISBN: 9781405916899 (September, 2014), 362 p., £7.99.

Dick Francis: For Kicks (UK 2008)

From the Publisher:
A reissue of a classic mystery from the champion of English storytellers
Common sense said that the whole idea was crazy... but when offered huge sums of money to move to England and help the Earl of October uncover a suspected racehorse dope scandal, Danny Roke finds the proposal intriguing.

Swapping his job as proprietor of an Australian stud farm to work undercover as a stable hand in Yorkshire, Danny soon has his hands full. Whilst the Earl's attractive daughters Patricia and Elinor draw his attention, he finds himself ever more deeply involved with the vicious swindlers he is out to entrap. And if neither the money nor the swindle will keep his mind on the job, maybe the death of the Earl's original investigator, Tommy Stapleton, will...

Dick Francis: For Kicks. Pan, ISBN: 9780330105965 (June, 2008), 362 p., £6.99.

Dick Francis: For Kicks (USA 2004)

From the Publisher:
Australian horse breeder Daniel Roke had resisted the exorbitant sum of money offered by a suave Englishman to investigate a scandal involving drugged racehorses. But after another investigator dies mysteriously, Roke agrees to fill his shoes--and learns that men who would give drugs to horses are capable of doing much worse to human beings.

Dick Francis: For Kicks. Berkley Publishing Group, ISBN: 0425194981 (February, 2004), 292 p., $6.99.

Dick Francis: For Kicks (USA 1998)

From the Publisher:
No one rivals Dick Francis when it comes to mystery and suspense. With this novel, the New York Times bestselling master gives readers one of his most compelling tales -- the story of a reluctant detective and a scandal turned deadly... Australian horse breeder Daniel Roke had resisted the exorbitant sum of money offered by a suave Englishman to investigate a scandal involving drugged racehorses. But after another investigator dies mysteriously, Roke agrees to fill his shoes -- and learns that men who would give drugs to horses would do much worse to human beings...

Dick Francis: For Kicks. Jove Books, ISBN: 0515123862 (November, 1998), 328 p., $6.99.

Dick Francis: For Kicks (USA 1989)

From the Publisher:
Daniel Roke didn't want the job. It didn't matter that the man who called himself the Earl of October was offering more money than he'd ever imagined. Daniel couldn't leave his Australian stud farm to go help look into an English horse-doping scandal.

Or so he said at first. But soon he was in England, taking over investigative duties vacated by a racing journalist who had died in what was described as an auto accident. And soon enough Daniel learned that men who would give drugs to horses would do much worse to human beings...

Dick Francis: For Kicks. Fawcett Books, ISBN: 0449212645 (May, 1989), 328 p., $5.95.

Dick Francis: For Kicks (UK 1965)

From the Publisher:
For Kicks is in a way a spy story - a racing spy story. Faced with a threat to the whole sport of steeplechasing, the Stewards decide that only an undercover investigator can succeed where all straightforward enquiries have failed.

Daniel Roke, taking on the job lightheartedly, finds himself headed for deadly danger. Yet the worst of his troubles come not from his enemies but from the two devastating daughters of October...

"Here we have a modern Nat Gould," was one critics comment following publication of Dead Cert and Nerve which has been translated into many languages and published in Reader's Digest condensed Books. In For Kicks Dick Francis continues to write as excitingly as he rides.

Or so he said at first. But soon he was in England, taking over investigative duties vacated by a racing journalist who had died in what was described as an auto accident. And soon enough Daniel learned that men who would give drugs to horses would do much worse to human beings...

Dick Francis: For Kicks. London: Michael Joseph, 1965, 255 p., $5.95.