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(More customer reviews)In an interview with second son Felix that I read online while waiting for this, his first solo thriller, to arrive from Amazon, I learned that the Dick Francis mysteries have always been a family affair, with Dick (the late Queen Mother's former jockey) creating the plots, his wife doing much if not most of the writing and second son Felix, the science teacher, contributing the tech aspects and other off-the-racetrack story elements. After Mrs. Francis died in 2000, Dick called it quits. When, after several years, the cry for more from readers and publishers had failed to die down, Felix gave up his teaching career to join "the family business" full time, the annual Dick Francis thriller was reborn and the second son's secondary byline began appearing on the book jackets. Now Dick is gone and the last surviving collaborator is going it alone for the first time. So how's he doing? Spectacularly well, I'd say.
That wasn't my take on it at first. The first couple dozen pages or so, involving an execution-style murder at the Grand National, seemed sort of same old/same old. But once the tale left the track and jumped into the world of international internet gambling, Bulgarian hit men and independent financial advisors (the current profession of our hero, a former jockey who'd broken his neck near the finish line a few years ago and could never ride again), we were off to the races with a fresh, complex and cleverly crafted nail-biter of a thriller. "Couldn't put it down" has become such a cliché on these pages and I'm a bit embarrassed to see myself using it, except that it really and truly does apply here for me and I suspect it will do the same for you.
The Francis family business seems to be in very good hands indeed.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Dick Francis's Gamble
Felix Francis continues his father's New York Times- bestselling legacy with another edge-of-your-seat read that's classic Francis. Nicholas "Foxy" Foxton, a former jockey who suffered a career- ending injury, is out for a day at the Grand National races when his friend and coworker Herb Kovak is murdered, execution style, right in front of him-and 60,000 other potential witnesses. Foxton and Kovak were both independent financial advisers at Lyall & Black, a firm specializing in extreme-risk investments. As he struggles to come to terms with Kovak's seemingly inexplicable death, Foxton begins to question everything, from how well he knew his friend to how much he understands about his employer. Was Kovak's murder a case of mistaken identity...or something more sinister?
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