Proof

by Dick Francis

Overview

Wine merchant Tony Beach has expertly catered his latest society soiree, but the fun's over when a team of hit men crash the party...literally. The event leaves Tony with a bitter aftertaste of suspicion--and sets off a mystery that's an intoxicating blend of deception, intrigue, and murder.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101464717
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/05/2005
Series:	A Dick Francis Novel
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	75,638
File size:	436 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Dick Francis was born in South Wales in 1920. He was a young rider of distinction winning awards and trophies at horse shows throughout the United Kingdom. At the outbreak of World War II he joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot, flying fighter and bomber aircraft including the Spitfire and Lancaster. He became one of the most successful postwar steeplechase jockeys, winning more than 350 races and riding for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. After his retirement from the saddle in 1957, he published an autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write more than forty acclaimed books. A three-time Edgar Award winner, he also received the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association’s Cartier Diamond Dagger, was named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, and was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2000. He died in February 2010, at age eighty-nine, and remains among the greatest thriller writers of all time.

Hometown:

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, British West Indies

Date of Birth:

October 31, 1920

Date of Death:

February 14, 2010

Place of Birth:

Tenby, Pembrokeshire, southwest Wales

Place of Death:

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, British West Indies

Education:

Dropped out of Maidenhead County School at age 15.

Editorial Reviews

The narrator of Francis's 26th mystery is Tony Beach, a young widower who fights his grief by keeping busy at his wine shop and by socializing. Eventually he teams up with private detective Gerard McGregor to find the hijackers of several trucks of spirits; the pair then take on a case involving the adulteration of whiskey and wine at a cafe. In rapid order the cafe's steward is brutally murdered, and Tony and Gerard just miss being killed. Tony's severest test occurs at the ``stunning climax of what may be judged the best of Francis's bestsellers so far; it's a corker,'' PW commented. (April)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"The best writer in the mystery genre...you will be involved from page one." -- U.S.A. Today

Larry King

Praise for Proof

“Absolutely brilliant.”—Larry King

“A vintage blend...Proof can be savored with pleasure.”—Chicago Tribune

“Great fun.”—People

“[A] stunning climax...It's a corker.”—Publishers Weekly

“A mainline fix for Francis addicts...The novel is proof that the master has no lost his touch.”—The Nashville Banner

More Praise for Dick Francis

“[The] master of crime fiction and equine thrills.”—Newsday

“It’s either hard or impossible to read Mr. Francis without growing pleased with yourself: not only the thrill of vicarious competence imparted by the company of his hero's, but also the lore you collect as you go, feel like a field trip with the perfect guide.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
“[Francis] has the uncanny ability to turn out simply plotted yet charmingly addictive mysteries.”—The Wall Street Journal 
 
“A rare and magical talent...who never writes the same story twice...Few writers have maintained such a high standard of excellence for as long as Dick Francis.”—TheSan Diego Union-Tribune
 
“Few things are more convincing than Dick Francis at a full gallop.”—Chicago Tribune

From the Publisher

Proof concerns a deadly accident, fake scotch whisky, murder, horse owners and horse trainers. In this dramatization, originally for BBC radio, the twenty-member cast skillfully enacts the dialogue of the novel complete with music and very realistic and extensive sound effects. Nigel Havers, as Tony Beach, and Jennifer Piercey, as Flora, carry the production with their soothing, even-paced deliveries. The rest of the cast members are well-selected for their roles. The skillful dramatization makes the story easy to follow even without a narrator. A.A.B. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine

NOV 93 - AudioFile