Bonecrack

My edition of this book quotes a review from The Atlantic Monthly, indicating that the book is "guaranteed to drive the reader to hysterical dithers and jotters." I confess that I have absolutely no idea what even regular dithers and jotters might amount to, let alone hysterical ones, and while I en......more

Not one of Francis' best I really like Dick Francis but this is not one of his stronger efforts. The protagonist does use his head but is helpless in dealing with physical attacks and never thinks of arming himself with even a stout stick. In the end chance, luck and the villain's health and increasi......more

Neil Griffon is an English businessman whose father owns a very successful stable. Griffon is smart, observant, and resourceful. We get this picture early on when he is mistakenly kidnapped and beaten in order to force him to do a powerful criminal’s bidding. Since stable owners are counted on to se......more

Re-read. This has one of Francis’s best premises, and the execution lives up to it. Neil Griffon, an antique dealer, has temporarily taken over his trainer father’s stable after his father was seriously injured in a car crash. Neil is kidnapped by a dangerous madman who demands, on pain of destroyin......more

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 direc......more