Slay Ride - Dick Francis

David Cleveland is looking forward to Norway. A change of scenery, an old friend and a straight forward looking case. An English jockey has gone missing; and so have the racecourse takings. It all looks so simple until a dead body turns up . . . unannounced.
The Racecourse Committee fields questions like some Norwegian Politburo and the only answers Cleveland gets are violent ones . . . from a gang of professional killers.
So, with maverick Marxist Erik Lund playing minder, he constructs a trap for his would-be assailants . . . with himself as bait.