Dead cert

I read this because one of the Penguin 60 books ([b:Racing Classics 1218391 Racing Classics Dick Francis https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1296922170s/1218391.jpg 1206865]) I read recently contained, instead of a short story, the first chapter of this book. It was a very well written first chapter, which built suspense and set up a great story. I was pretty annoyed at that, and had whetted my appetite to finish the novel, which I picked up for a couple of dollars a few days later.Dick Francis is a former steeple-chase jockey, so is writing well within his sphere of knowledge, and that comes across in this book. To a person with little knowledge in the racing industry, and less interest, it reads as a technically correct book. The story involves a number of steeple-chase race ‘accidents', which of course are not accidents at all, and I would expect that without the technical precision of the writing, a book like this would fail to convince. Also wrapped in are organist crime in the form of race fixing, bet fixing and general intimidation tactics.I enjoyed it for what it is - a fast paced murder mystery thriller, where the main character is cleverer that the police and all others. I don't read a lot of these types of books, probably one or two a year usually, so this one sits ok with me.Three and a half stars, rounded down to 3.