Driving Force is a Dick Francis novel, i.e. a thriller from the world of horse racing. Queen Elizabeth II loved these novels and Mr. Francis wrote about 40. His son continued the legacy with more titles in the same vein, after they co-authored a few titles.
I read Driving Force by Dick Francis on Libby, the library app, on my phone, in dark mode to protect my eyes
A few years ago, I read a Dick Francis novel and liked it, so I decided to try a few more. Well, I could not stop until I read four of them in row. Driving Force was the first in my little Francis cavalcade.
Francis used to work as a professional jockey and, naturally, he loved that world. Once he retired, he became a journalist and a novelist. His books are all works of fiction, thrillers in which a jockey usually has to solve a mystery. Somebody might get kidnapped or killed. Sometimes horses die mysteriously. The protagonist stays cool and solves the enigma slowly but surely.
These books keep you turning the pages fast, which is a welcome change after a lot of the nonfiction, preachy books I have read this year. It was still summer break when I read Francis and I needed an escape into a completely different world than mine: horseracing in England.
The protagonist in Driving Force owns a transportation business: his clients need horses moved around and his drivers perform the job for him. One day, they pick up a hitchkiker, which is against the rules. When they get to the destination, they discover to their horror that he has died in their van. The story develops from there.
Interesting philosophical point of the book: muscle, money, or malice constitute the three driving forces in human beings. Do you agree with that?
