Dead Cert / Dick Francis 205 p.

Alan York, amateur jockey, watches his best friend take a deadly fall in a race where he was "dead cert" to win.  Alan knew it wasn't an accident.  He investigates and finds mob-like activity in the protection racket.  It has its claws into race betting.  Dick Francis hero is an ordinary man thrust into a dangerous situation, trying to find the murderer of his friend.  What you get is a lot of detail information about racing, wonderful secondary characters, complex plots with twists that keep you guessing till the end, and a hero you can care about.