Books: Takk for a Dead Rider

SLAYRIDE

by DICK FRANCIS 219 pages. Harper & Row. $5.95.

What is the best kind of book to read while waiting in line for a ration of gasoline? Poetry requires an atmosphere of reverential calm not found among a herd of tethered horsepower; humor is not likely to be funny enough to offset a stalled driver's realization that he is the butt of a Third World joke; the novel of ideas requires too much concentration. An unpretentious, skillfully written detective novel, however, seems ideally suited to the anxious occasion. Aside from the...

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