Blood Sport

by Dick Francis

English agent Gene Hawkins is restlessly facing three weeks of vacation with only his tormented past for company. So when his boss asks him to help millionaire Dave Teller locate a prized missing stallion, he accepts. But he gets more action than he bargained for when he draws the affection of his boss' beautiful teenage daughter, advances from Teller's socialite wife, and the deadly attention of the horse thieves, who would be happy to put Hawkins out to pasture...permanently.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Audiobook

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Dick Francis, CBE, FRSL (born Richard Stanley Francis) was a popular British horse racing crime writer and retired jockey.

Dick Francis worked on his books with his wife, Mary, before her death. Dick considered his wife to be his co-writer - as he is quoted in the book, "The Dick Francis Companion", released in 2003:
"Mary and I worked as a team. ... I have often said that I would have been happy to have both our names on the cover. Mary's family always called me Richard due to having another Dick in the family. I am Richard, Mary was Mary, and Dick Francis was the two of us together."

Praise for Dick Francis: 'As a jockey, Dick Francis was unbeatable when he got into his stride. The same is true of his crime writing' Daily Mirror '

Dick Francis's fiction has a secret ingredient - his inimitable knack of grabbing the reader's attention on page one and holding it tight until the very end' Sunday Telegraph '

Dick Francis was one of the most successful post-war National Hunt jockeys. The winner of over 350 races, he was champion jockey in 1953/1954 and rode for HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, most famously on Devon Loch in the 1956 Grand National.

On his retirement from the saddle, he published his autobiography, The Sport of Queens, before going on to write forty-three bestselling novels, a volume of short stories (Field of 13), and the biography of Lester Piggott.

During his lifetime Dick Francis received many awards, amongst them the prestigious Crime Writers' Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the genre, and three 'best novel' Edgar Allan Poe awards from The Mystery Writers of America. In 1996 he was named by them as Grand Master for a lifetime's achievement. In 1998 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2000. Dick Francis died in February 2010, at the age of eighty-nine, but he remains one of the greatest thriller writers of all time.

Series:
* Sid Halley Mystery
* Kit Fielding Mystery

Reviews

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 3 out of 5]

”I awoke with foreboding. My hand closed in a reflex on the Luger under the pillow. I listened, acutely attentive. No sound. No quick surreptitious slither, no rub of cloth on cloth, no half-controlled pulse-driven breath. No enemy hovering. Slowly, relaxing, I turned half over and squinted at the room. A quiet, empty, ugly room. One third of what for want of a less cozy word I called home.”

Gene Hawkins is on a forced vacation from a British agency that remains unnamed, but could quite possibly be some entity of MI6. He would rather stay busy because mental repose leads to thoughts of melancholy. His life is empty outside of his service to his country. The love of his life, Caroline, is married to another man, and whatever hope he once had of having a life with her sailed away when her husband refused to divorce her. This is the 1960s, and getting a divorce is not as easy as the perfunctory wham, bam, see you in the funny papers style of today.

While attempting to relax on a boat, an attempt is made on the life of one of his shipmates, which leads, after he fishes the chap out of the water, to a job offer to find some stolen thoroughbred horses. I knew that Dick Francis would be working horses into the plot. What intrigues me is his decision to have his protagonist, a man with little knowledge of horses, be on the outside of the business, unlike most of his other books where the protagonist is someone working in the horse business.

To find these horses, he has to go to America. That’s okay. He globe-trots for his day job, so moving about in America on his moonlighting gig will be easy peasy. He decides to be German because his German accent is better than his American one. Three expensive horses, past their racing days and now being used as studs for future generations of hopefully fast horses, have been stolen over a series of years, but it is baffling as to why. Their value is in their papers, so someone can’t sell their sperm without rolling out their ancestral tree. If they can’t show their prestigious background, they are, for all intents and purposes, nearly worthless. Gene will have to unravel the reasons for the theft if he has any chance of finding out who took them. He has to be careful because, if he tips his hand before he can secure the creatures, it will only stand to reason that the thieves will have the horses killed.

Gene has a bigger problem named Lynnie Teller, daughter of the man he fished out of the water in England. While trying to get a line on his investigation, he is spending time with her and her mother. Both are attractive, and both are interested in finding out more, a lot more, about Gene Hawkins. Lynnie reminds him of Caroline because she matches up well with Gene on a mental level, and she is pretty and trim, a delight for any man’s eye. ”But if I’d learned anything in thirty-eight years it is who not to go to bed with.” Maybe so, but loneliness weighs on Hawkins like a five hundred pound gorilla, and the girl makes him feel good about himself. ”Too young in experience, understanding, and wickedness.” Aye, but that also lends charm to her beauty. Despite the pitfalls, he can’t help flirting with her.

”She laughed gently, stretching like a cat. ‘Isn’t this heat just gorgeous?’

‘Mm.’

‘What are all those scars on you?’

‘Lions and tigers and appendicitis.’

She snorted.”

It’s hard to decide who is more dangerous, the thieves or the pretty and smart seventeen year old temptation.

The plot has a few tricky parts that don’t quite work, but in the later part of the book, the well crafted action scenes make the reader forget about the snags in the beginning of the book. There are inexplicable sections of minutiae that are kind of dull at times, but the basis of the plot proves to be fascinating, especially for those of us who have dealt with blood lines in animals before.

I sort of fell into owning this book. I was actually looking for a copy of Whip Hand, which is the second book in the Sid Halley series. I stumbled upon first American edition copies of Odds Against and Blood Sport, sold by the same dealer at unbelievably good prices. They have the lovely Frederick E. Banbery covers, and this is one of the few times where I prefer American dust jackets to the British designed ones. Blood Sport is sun faded on the spine, but otherwise is a very good copy. The Odds Against is really lovely, near fine, and just like that, I’m no longer just a reader of Francis’s books but a collector of his early titles. Fortunately, it is a gentle madness.

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[James Thane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gene Hawkins is an English civil servant--actually a very astute investigator for a department that is never named. He's also severely depressed following the end of a love affair and is toying with the idea of suicide. He has a three-week vacation coming, and this is probably not good news for a man who has no life outside of his work and who is thinking of ending his own life.

Just as his vacation begins though, Hawkins's boss asks him to accompany him and his family on a Sunday afternoon boating outing. This is very odd, since the boss has never before asked Hawkins to socialize outside of work. The boss's precocious young daughter picks Hawkins up and drives him to the boat. They cast off and the boss introduces Gene to the rest of his family and to his other guest, a man named Dave Teller.

Obviously, there's an ulterior motive lurking behind the invitation, and it turns out that Teller is part of a syndicate that has just lost a very expensive horse in the United States. This is the third such horse that has gone missing, the boss wonders if Hawkins would mind using his vacation to go to the U.S. and investigate the matter as a favor to Teller.

Hawkins has no interest in undertaking such a mission and turns the offer down. But then, while the party is still on the river, an incident occurs that convinces Hawkins to change his mind. Before long he's on his way to the U.S. and begins tracking the latest missing horse. Obviously, this is going to be a very dangerous mission, But his adversaries have no idea that Hawkins is already contemplating ending his own life, so what does he have to lose?

This book is a bit unusual for a Dick Francis novel in that most of it takes place in the U.S., rather than the U.K. And, while there are horses involved, the main protagonist is not actually part of the racing world. It's a fun, quick read, but maybe not quite on a par with a lot of other Dick Francis books. Hawkins is an OK protagonist, but one of the things that usually characterizes a Dick Francis novel is an especially menacing bad guy who's controlling things from behind the scenes. The villains here are not as scary as usual, but that's a relatively small complaint and fans of Dick Francis should certainly enjoy this effort.

[Harry · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is there to say about Dick Francis? As I think about all of his books (yes, this review covers all of his books, and yes I've read them all) I think about a moral ethical hero, steeped in intelligence and goodness embroiled in evil machinations within British horse racing society - either directly or indirectly. The heroes aren't always horse jockies, they can be film producers, or involve heroes engaged in peripheral professions that somehow always touch the horse racing world.

But more than that, Francis's heroes are rational human beings. The choices made are rational choices directed by a firm objective philosophy that belies all of Francis's novels. The dialogue is clear and touched with humor no matter the intensity of evil that the hero faces. The hero's thoughts reveal a vulnerability that is touching, while his actions are always based on doing the right thing to achieve justice.

Causing the reader to deeply care about the characters in a novel is a difficult thing to do. No such worries in a Francis novel. The point of view is first person, you are the main character as you read the story (usually the character of Mr. Douglas). The hero is personable, like able, non-violent but delivering swift justice with his mind rather than through physical means. This is not to say that violence is a stranger to our hero. Some of it staggering and often delivered by what we would think of normal persons living in British society.

You will come to love the world of Steeple Chase racing, you will grow a fondness for horses, stables, trainers and the people who live in that world. You will read the books, devouring one after the other and trust me Dick Francis has a lot of novels (over 40 by my last count).

There are several series woven into the fabric of Francis's work: notably the Sid Halley and Kit Fielding series.

Assessment: Dick Francis is one of my favorite writers. I read his books with a fierce hunger that remains insatiable and I mourn his death.

[✨Susan✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not know that this was published in 1967 until I was done with it. A very smart, timeless mystery.

When Dave Tellers prized race horses, that are worth millions, start mysteriously disappearing and then there is an attempt on his life, he enlists the help of Gene Hawkins, an English agent, who is known for his brilliance at solving cases. Gene is extremely methodical and has an amazing gift of perception, on the flip side he is also in a constant state of depression which he is able to hide very well.

The intricacies of the race horsing world are described and made easy to understand for the layman. The racing, siring, tattooing and care of these stately animals are all very interesting aspects of this great mystery. This story was highly engaging and I am looking forward to reading more of Dick Francis's intelligent and clean writing. Geoffrey Howard did a great job narrating and his different accents were performed extremely well.

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since this book was originally published in 1967, in many ways it seemed like a step back to a simpler time for me. A time with simple technologies, no sex, no cussing, and very mild violence. The story centers around the search for 3 missing breeding stallions, and it was made interesting even for someone who knows very little about the world of horse racing and breeding. Gene is also a rather unconventional leading man — mysterious (you never quite find out what it is he actually does for work), severely depressed (over a woman?), and often suicidal. In many ways this book is as much about him and his emotional roller coaster as it is about the search for the horses. It sucked me in, and I was glad to go along for the ride.

Also, for some reason I kept picturing Gene as Daniel Craig. I don’t know if it was the British accent of the narrator or the fact that the first time you meet Gene he’s pulling a gun out from under his pillow, which is a very Bond thing to do.

[Brittany McCann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the first half of this book. It was really fun that much of it took place in the small Montana towns where I grew up.

The second half of the book, with the additional case/mystery to solve, rapidly gets convoluted while also slowing down the pace.

This was my first Dick Francis book, but it was fun to have the older Dick Tracy style of feel in the writing, and I will check out other books of his in the future.

A good 3-3.5 Stars.

[Jacqueline J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this one by DF. It's different. It takes place mainly in the American west. The hero, unlike most DF heroes is a man who is used to danger. He is a burnt out spy and somehow through the action of the book learns to appreciate life again. Like all DF's books the fun is in watching the hero cleverly foil the bad guys.

[Steelwhisper · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Tarma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dick Francis is an awesome writer. What more can I say? Not much. Another very Goodread.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusually this story is set in America. Gene is a civil servant who screens people for highly sensitive work. He is good at his job intelligent, introverted and very depressed after a failed relationship. After saving the life of a millionaire American on the Thames he takes a job to find three kidnapped stallions in America.

The story is set in Wyoming, New York, California and Arizona. His investigation takes him to a dude ranch, Las Vegas and Kentucky. He works with Walt an insurance investigator and slowly following the clues works out who are the culprits. Overall a good story with tension, escapes and a man overcoming his depression.

[Rachel Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot isn't as well-tuned as Francis's norm, with an unusual amount of low-stakes wandering around looking for clues, but the hero makes it memorable.

Gene is a former James Bond-type secret agent turned private eye (unusually for Francis - his heroes tend not to be professional hero types) suffering from long-term, severe depression. He spends a lot of the book trying to convince himself not to commit suicide. Treatment is never mentioned, and he seems to think it doesn't exist - at one point he muses that some day depression will be recognized as a disease, and babies will be inoculated against it. Originally published in 1967, when there most certainly were treatments for depression. However, to this day many depressed people never seek treatment, so I believe that Gene wouldn't.

In the first and best action set-piece, Gene's boss invites him on a boating trip, where Gene meets the boss's sweet 17-year-old daughter and saves someone's life in what appears to be, but of course is not, a boating accident. The boss gives him a job - hunting down a missing race horse in America - with the clear intent of keeping him too busy to off himself. There's a semi-romance with the teen daughter of the "I'll wait till you're 21" type, of which the best thing I can say is that it's less squicky than usual. There's a much better non-romance subplot involving a woman Gene's age who seems to be a standard unstable, alcoholic sexpot, but who is then given actual depth and a very satisfying storyline.

The pieces of this book don't fit together as well as Francis learned to do later. Gene has a helper who needed better characterization for his storyline to really work, and the final action climax isn't that climactic. But the depiction of depression is very realistic, and it's a good example of how to write a depressed hero without making the book itself depressing to read.

[Jay French · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read about half of Dick Francis’ mysteries so far, and I’ve noticed a common formula. But “Blood Sport” was quite different in that he didn’t use the same basic story “architecture” that he has used on most all of his other books I’ve read. In those other books, Francis delves into another line of work, or technology, and explains it and it becomes a major part of the story. He’s written about movie making, animal food factories, computer viruses, outdoor survival, and art glass. You could always tell that he found a topic that interested him, researched it, then wrote it into his books. This one really doesn’t have anything like that. Instead, this is very similar to an Ian Fleming James Bond story. It is the story of a British “civil servant”, and although you never find out exactly what his job was, it involved Bond-like jobs, situational intelligence, and the use of a Luger. And as in some of Fleming’s Bond stories, here the spy is depressed. And “working” on vacation. In fact, if you wanted to say the Francis story formula was intact with this book, you would say Francis studied James Bond novels and that’s the additional research he did, imbuing his spy with some of Bond’s ways and borrowing some plot ideas. And, with no surprise, this one includes race horses and your typical unsavory characters. I liked this character, and I would have liked to have seen him fleshed out in additional books. This felt like an introduction to a series, and I’m surprised Francis didn’t continue it.

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of the better efforts from the racetrack specialist. an unusual hero, still the quiet but strong introverted one, highly intelligent and self-reliant, but this time one burdened by a crippling depression. The bad guy is more in line with the usual Francis typecast : moneyed, smooth, greedy, less prone to violence than in other books. Also typical is the presence of a very appealing female companion.
The plot is of course about racehorses, and the setting moves from the Thames riverbanks to Kentucky green hills, the snowy Tetons, Las Vegas and the Pacific beaches.
recommended for anyone willing to try a solid thriller from a master of the genre.

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dick Francis is always a good read--fast, interesting and exciting.

Blood Sport comes from early in his career, published in 1967, and he hadn't quite settled down into his ex-jockey, or jockey as progtagonist. Here we have government agent Gene Hawkins who works for some unnamed British government agency. We know he gets the people out of jams, carries a Luger, has a dark past which had put him in some dangerous and unsavory situations. He's dealing with depression from the woman who broke up with him over a year earlier. And his father was connected to horse racing, but that's in the distant past.

For his three weeks vacation--holiday in Britain--his boss convinces him to help someone locate a horse that has been stolen. He turns it down, until he sees an accident that was actually an attempted murder.

The case sends him to the US (a rarity in Fancis books) going from New York to Kentucky to California, Las Vegas and Arizona.

As always it's a fast-paced story. I was hooked from almost the beginning. There were a couple editing things which threw me off--his editors should have spotted these issues quickly. Mainly it has to do with language. Too often in here he has Americans using British slang too easily. One that also distracted me was near the finale, he switches back and forth between torch and flashlight on the same page. In England, it's always torch, not flashlight.

As time passed, the editors got better at their job and he developed enough clout to demand better editors.

It's definitely worth the read.

[AndrewP · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the time I can enjoy a decent crime novel even if the particular subject matter does not interest me that much. This book failed to live up to my expectations.

Horse racing and horses in general do not hold any fascination to me and thus the background of this book was not that interesting. But that was not the main failing of this book. The main problem was that it was too much of a simplistic linear police procedural, where clue 'A' led to clue 'B' and so on. You never discover what the main protagonist does as a real job, but he was such a depressing person that I did not really care by the end of the book. At one point, I was really hoping he was going to kill himelf.

Not my type of book at all. Perhaps later Dick Francis books are better, but it's going to be a long time before I try another one.

[Kwoomac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spoiler: No happy ending here. This story was a little tough to read because the protagonist, while he shared many DF hero traits, he also suffered from depression and often shared his suicidal musings. How Gene Hawkins manages to track down three missing horses and then retrieve them was pretty cool. Lots of suspense involved in both retrievals. This was a reread and despite knowing the outcome I was worried about the time it was taking. Two negatives. I wasn’t happy about Walt. No details. I was disturbed by 39-year-old Gene’s attraction to barely eighteen Linnie. Here’s Gene’s description of her as she’s sleeping; her skin was close-textured like a baby’s and her face was that of a child. The woman inside was still a bud, with a long way to grow. Ick.

[Deb Greening · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have read all of Dick Francis' books and, particularly with the earlier ones, one thing I particularly liked is that he treated his readers are intelligent people - no need for paragraphs describing things - he just made them happen and put the reader right in the thick of it! All of his books have something to do with horses: the protagonist is an owner, trainer, jockey, writer, pilot, or any number of other race horse related employments. Before he wrote books, Dick Francis was a jockey, and it shows!

[Tiina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has an interesting plot and the main character thinks up a couple of smart tricks to first solve the riddle of disappeared horses and then to find who took them and why.

I've now read this book three times, the last time was ten years ago and what an interesting thing a mind is - I had very little recollection of the story. So I was able to enjoy this as a "new" book by Dick Francis, who is one of my favourite authors! How nice!

[Feliz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite Dick Francis novels. His heroes are always very well-drawn, but I found Gene Hawkins particularly to the point, fighting with very human issues as he outwardly appears a typical Bond-style professional hero type. The actual plot isn't really the appeal of this book for me, it's the character of the hero in and of itself.

[Gehayi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This gets 3.5 stars rather than four, as I wasn't comfortable with the budding relationship between Gene Hawkins, the protagonist who, by his own admission, was "a couple of years away from forty" and seventeen-year-old Lynnie Keeble. I know that the age of consent is lower in the U.K. than in the U.S.; I know that they did nothing more than kiss, and that only once; I know that other characters pointed out repeatedly that Lynnie was too young for Gene. Even Gene said that she was far too innocent to get involved with someone like him. And yet it ended with a promise of "wait until she's twenty-one," with a distinct hint that Lynnie would not change her mind about being in love with Gene. I knew that I was supposed to feel that this was a positive relationship and that Lynnie's love of life could help Gene reconnect with it...but every time they were together on the page, I thought, "You are thirty-eight. She's seventeen. You are LITERALLY old enough to be her father!"

That would not have squicked me if this were a medieval or Victorian era setting, where disproportionate ages of partners are common. But in England and America fifty years ago? I couldn't rationalize that such a pairing was typical of the setting. The relationship was secondary at best, but still I found myself wishing repeatedly that Lynnie had been a college student of twenty-two, at least, rather than a seventeen-year-old kid.

I'm sorry that I had to mark this book down for the underage relationship, because I really have to give Francis props for its portrayal of a clinically depressed man. Francis gets what suicidal depression is like--the exhaustion, the sheer effort it takes to talk to people, the numbness, the sensation of drowning while weighed down by intolerable burdens; in fact, I'd say that this is a report by someone who has been through it all and knows intimately what depression is like. And Francis doesn't hit the pause button on Gene Hawkins' depression when plot points occur; it's just one more problem that Gene has to overcome. Yet the book itself is not depressing. Kudos to you, Mr. Francis, for all of this.

Mention must be made, too, of Eunice Teller, the wife of the man who hired Gene to find the horses. Eunice is persistently described as "bored," but it's clear that she's not merely bored but suffocating in a life of wealth and luxury in which she has nothing to do. Gene is the one who recognizes that her alcoholism and her melodramatic attempts to seduce him are symptoms of depression and desperation, pointing out that using her creative talents in interior design might help her. That, in fact, she needs to use her skills. She takes his advice. Mercifully, this does not lead to an instant fix (she remains alcoholic and somewhat bitter), but it does give her a release--and a tie to life--that she didn't have before.

As for the plot--it involves finding three stolen race horses (Chrysalis, Allyx and Showman, Chrysalis being the most recent theft) and the difficulty of proving (in 1967, when this was written) that the stolen horses, who are all dark bays with no markings, are themselves and not, as the thieves claim, completely different horses. DNA tests, "chipped" horses, and genetic profiles of foals in utero do not yet exist in the book's universe, and all that the blood tests of Blood Sport can do is prove if a horse has blood type X...not if it's Horse A or Horse B.

It's a knotty problem for ex-spy turned investigator Gene, who decides to steal back first one horse and then the next two on the grounds that a) this will get the horses back to their original owners and b) it might lead the thieves to betray themselves. And he's right...as far as he goes. But the thieves are quick and resourceful, and they're very good at figuring out what Gene and his allies are planning--which proves perilous on more than one occasion.

All in all, a pretty good read.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. I'm really pickin' em this summer.
If this had been in print I would never have trudged through it. As it was, I couldn't wait for it to end. I find it hard to believe that it was in the running for an Edgar Award for Best Mystery 1969, but maybe that says something about the competition. Ouch.

Remember when I reviewed For Kicks, and I said it looked like Francis had considered Daniel Roke for a "James Bond with horses" series? Well, here we have a clinically depressed Bond figure, Gene...can't remember don't care, who can't make up his mind whether to kill himself or get over himself. As in all the early Francis books, we have an unattached drifter who is too passive for words. In this case he's a government fixer of sorts whose boss (yet again) decides to give him a tough job to see if he'll "snap out of it, soldier" and get back on the rails--if not for Queen and Country, at least out of sense of duty to the hand that feeds him. But Gene here is no Sid Halley. I found him completely unsympathetic from beginning to end, half-wishing he would top himself and put me out of his misery. I'm not being unkind. I've suffered from depression myself. But I didn't choose to write about it and I wonder why Francis did.

The "American" characters use British vocabulary and turns of phrase ("mad" where an American would say "crazy" is just one mild example) and this was not helped by the audio-book narrator doing a very bad job of remembering who was supposed to use which accent and speech rhythms. It would have been much more bearable if he'd just read it straight, in his own voice; many do. Half the time he sounded bored with the whole thing. I certainly was.

I know that any prolific author will eventually write some real dogs. This is one. Do not despair, if this is your first Francis. When he's on form, it's a rattling good ride. I've never used the word "dull" about a Francis novel before (not even For Kicks), but this one was insipid. All of the real action is crammed into the last couple of chapters. If the girl has any sense at all, she'll change her mind.

[Simon Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first few Dick Francis novels, whilst very enjoyable, do follow a bit of a formula. With this one he began to branch out a little. And he does it very successfully. The lead character is a deeply troubled man and we get to know him throughout the book which is the first break from the formula.

the story takes places almost exclusively outside the British Isles which is another break from the formula and the plot unfolds at a different pace to the previous novels.

The story is almost a whodunnit but there are not quite enough clues offered for the reader to work out the identity, there are a few wrong turns though which make for an enjoyable read.

It is of it's time (late 60s) but it does hold up well. The writing put me in mind of later Ian Fleming novels and that is no bad thing.

Highly recommended. If you are a fan then you will relish this one, if you felt the first few books were rather samey pulp fiction then this is worth your time.

[Contrarius · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Francis book had a complex and interesting plot and IMHO a good representation of suicidal depression. It made me wonder if Francis himself ever suffered from depression. Unfortunately the plot was a bit dated, since the major swindle could never be carried out in these days of simple DNA analysis, but setting that quibble aside it was quite an enjoyable installment in the Francis series.

Simon Prebble narrated the recording I listened to. He's a fine British narrator in general. Unfortunately, large parts of this book take place in the US. Prebble has a lousy American accent, and no Southern or Western accents at all. Too bad!

[C.E. Murphy]

This is Francis's 5th book, as far as I can tell (which is done by looking at the copyright date and subtracting from the first year he was published, so I'm reasonably close, anyway). It's still unquestionably got his knack for astonishingly adept descriptions with a handful of words, but it's more verbose than I think any of the later books I've read. This is not a complaint, just an observation: my feeling is that as he got better, he pared the books down to their essence, making them tour de forces in a way this one wasn't.

Also, reading books written and set in the late 60s/early 70s, with a visible eye for the period detail, is really pretty fun. :)

[Deirdre S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

More moving than I expected, though Francis' understated books often are. In this case the viewpoint character is suicidally depressed, chronically unattached and uses the dangers of his covert-ops-type job to keep himself engaged enough to struggle through one more day after another. Ironically, it is how painful and personal the cost of
his succeeding at this particular job turns out to be that brings him to the point of being willing to re-engage with life, and other people for the first time in years.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is a bit of a departure from Francis first several books, in that the main character suffers from medical depression, and he battles it throughout the book. The plot is very inventive, and the ending the more realistic in that it is not the fairy tale one you might expect. Reading these books in publication order, I am again struck at Francis' ability to plot and to develop character, both of which were compelling right from his early career.

[Maribeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Jackson, Wyoming dude ranch is the setting for this one. I liked it enormously! I've spent a bit of time in Jackson and in the other parts of the American desert West Francis uses for the setting of this book, and I think that was a draw. It is a particularly good sample of Francis's writing. Gene Hawkins is the hero.

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first Dick Francis novel I've read and it was a huge surprise. I would never have picked it up but it was a book club choice so I gave it a go. I really enjoyed it. It was well paced with rounded and interesting characters and a satisfying plot. Even though it was written in 1967 it didn't feel dated. I will definitely read more.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Not as good as the first Sid Hawley book, Odds Against, but still an enjoyable book. This one lost me in some plodding chapters along the way. Gene is a civil servant obviously in the spying field and is hired while he is on vacation to find an American's missing thoroughbred horse. Gene first meets David Teller on his boss' boat on the Thames where they encounter a young couple stuck on their punt in one of the locks. David is accidently (?) hit off the boat during the attempted rescue and Gene jumps in the save him. Gene is battling depression and suicidal thought which run throughout the book, sometimes a bit too much for this readers liking, so he surprises himself by his will to live when saving David from the water. Gene decides to take the case and tracks the two punters who tried to kill David to a ranch in the Midwest. Here he finds and steals back the race horse but not before being caught and left for dead by the thieves. He now sets out to find two other of David's horses that were stolen years earlier and finds out that the mastermind behind this stolen horse scheme is the punter's uncle who happens to live right next door to David's new home in California. That was why they had to kill David for fear that her might recognize his horses. Gene protects David, gets the horses back and decides to live to fight another day. I liked the search for the first horse but the second search was a bit more convoluted and I started to lose interest.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listened. I liked much of this quite a bit, but the tacked-on, half-assed depiction of depression was incompetently done, and the mostly approvingly-portrayed semi-romance between a 38 year-old man and a 17 y/o girl???? Just no. Too many negatives for anything more than OK, and probably generous at that. Early Francis, but not enough of an excuse.