A bomb scare at Aintree halted the Grand National in 1997 and the racecourse was evacuated; twenty-two years earlier, Dick Francis had written a short story describing such an event at another course. Now, for the first time, Dick Francis has compiled a volume of short stories, the settings ranging from the National Hunt Festival at Cheltenham, where a middle-aged owner falls hopelessly in love with her jockey, to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, where the demon drink and wilting willpower take their toll. There are diverse as bookmakers and news editors, from crooked lawyers and contract killers. With his remarkable blend of unrelenting suspense, finely tuned narrative and lean, stylish prose, Dick Francis’s thrillers have led readers to the winner’s enclosure year after year. From his very first novel to his most recent, the award-winning Master of Crime has treated his fans to a world of equine thrills and human frailty in a string of bestsellers of unparalleled excellence. Dick Francis’s fans have a great treat in store — thirteen marvellous plots, thirteen sets of characters to admire, and thirteen stings in the tail to gasp over. Dick Francis is as much master of the short story as he is of the novel.