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Summary
Summary
Unabridged CDs ? 9 CDs, 10 1?2 hours
The Grand Master returns in prizewinning form.
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Author Notes
Dick Francis was born in Wales on October 31, 1920. Because his father was a professional steeplechase jockey and a stable manager, Francis grew up around horses, and after a stint as a pilot in the Royal Air Force during World War II, he became a steeplechase jockey himself, turning professional in 1948. He was named champion jockey of the 1953-54 racing season by the British National Hunt after winning more than 350 races and was retained as jockey to the queen mother for four seasons.
When he retired from racing in 1957 at the age of 36, Francis went to work as a racing correspondent for the Sunday Express, a London paper, where he worked for 16 years. In the early sixties, he decided to combine his love of mysteries with his knowledge of the racing world, and published Dead Cert in 1962. Set mostly in the racing world, he has written more than 40 novels including Forfeit, Blood Sport, Slay-Ride, Odds Against, Flying Finish, Smoke Screen, High Stakes, and Long Shot. He wrote his last four books Dead Heat, Silks, Even Money, and Crossfire with his son Felix Francis.
He has received numerous awards including the Silver Dagger award from Britain's Crime Writers Association for For Kicks, the Gold Dagger award for Whip Hand, the Diamond Dagger award in 1990, and three Edgar awards. He died on February 14, 2010 at the age of 89.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
After collaborating on Dead Heat (2007), bestseller Francis and his son, Felix, deliver another gripping thriller with a thoroughbred racing backdrop. Soon after London barrister Geoffrey Mason, an amateur jockey by avocation, starts receiving a series of threatening messages from a former client, Julian Trent, whose conviction for assault was overturned on appeal, Mason reluctantly accepts the defense of a jockey, Steve Mitchell, accused of the pitch-fork murder of fellow rider Scot Barlow at a steeplechase event. Mitchell and Barlow had fallen out over Barlow's sister, a vet and Mitchell's former girlfriend, who took her own life just a short while before. When unknown parties order Mason to lose the case, he must balance his professional ethics and his sense of self-preservation. The solid writing and engaging lead will carry readers along at a brisk pace, though some may find the dramatic courtroom revelation of the murderer overly theatrical. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
The title to Francis' second entry on the racetrack suspense circuit since his return from a long absence is shorthand for his new hero's status as a British barrister and an amateur steeplechase rider (Francis fans will remember that the author was a champion professional steeplechase rider before too many collarbone breaks). The title also gives some insight into the hero's frustrations: as a junior arguing for the defense (think Rumpole), he may never wear the silk of a leader. Also, his true passion, riding, is getting away from him as he gets older and heavier. The novel offers a stunning mix of thundering racetrack action, back-of-the-stables betrayal, criminal investigation, and Old Bailey courtroom drama, all brought together by hero Geoffrey Mason. Suspense breathes on just about every page. Mason is brought into a case involving the murder of a top jump jockey whom he knew, killed with a pitchfork, and a thug whom he put away for numerous assaults and attempted murder is back out and out to get Mason and those he loves. Despite being coauthored by Francis' son, Felix, Silks reads like early Francis (Nerve or Dead Cert, for example) in its tautness and concentration on racing. Even background on equine ailments and the British judicial system somehow adds to the novel's momentum. Francis is, again, far in the lead.--Fletcher, Connie Copyright 2008 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
A journalist, a hacker and a 40-year-old cold case. A FEW years ago, Ake Daun, a professor of European ethnology, posted an article on Sweden's official national Web site, Sweden.se, arguing that Swedes are not in fact gloomy or suicide prone. "Sweden is quite far down in the European suicide table, in 15th place," Daun wrote, blaming a 1960 speech by Dwight Eisenhower for leaving outsiders with the impression that Swedes tended toward "sin, nudity, drunkenness and suicide." Maybe so. But "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," by Stieg Larsson, a Swedish journalist who died of a heart attack in 2004, won't help the country's image any. The novel offers a thoroughly ugly view of human nature, especially when it comes to the way Swedish men treat Swedish women. In Larsson's world, sadism, murder and suicide are commonplace - as is lots of casual sex. (Sweden isn't all bad.) "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," published in Sweden in 2005, became an international best seller. The book opens with an intriguing mystery. Henrik Vanger, an octogenarian industrialist, hires Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist who has just lost a libel case under murky circumstances, to investigate the disappearance of his great-niece, Harriet. Nearly 40 years earlier, Harriet vanished from a small island mostly owned by the Vanger family, and Henrik has never gotten over it. Blomkvist takes on the case, despite serious misgivings, after Henrik promises him 2.4 million kroner (about $372,000 at the current exchange rate) for a year's work. Henrik says he's certain that someone in his family murdered Harriet. "I detest most of the members of my family," he tells Blomkvist. "They are for the most part thieves, misers, bullies and incompetents" - a description that will prove to be, if anything, too kind. The girl of the title isn't Harriet but Lisbeth Salander, a 24-yearold computer hacker with a photographic memory, a violent temper and some serious intimacy issues. After a nasty plot detour involving a lawyer foolish enough to try to take advantage of her, Salander teams with Blomkvist to solve the mystery of Harriet's disappearance. The novel perks up as their investigation gains speed, though readers will need some time to sort through the various cousins and nephews and half-brothers and -sisters who populate the Vanger family. Harriet's case turns out to be connected to a series of murders in the 1950s and '60s. When a cat is killed and its tortured corpse is left outside the cottage where Blomkvist is living, he and Salander realize they may not be working on a cold case after all. BUT if the middle section of "Girl" is a treat, the rest of the novel doesn't quite measure up. The book's original Swedish title was "Men Who Hate Women," a label that just about captures the subtlety of the novel's sexual politics. Except for Blomkvist, nearly every man in the book under age 70 is a violent misogynist. Nor will "Girl" win any awards for characterization. While Blomkvist comes to life as he's investigating the murder, his relationships with his daughter and with Erika Berger, a co-worker who is his occasional lover, seem halfformed and weak. Even after 460 pages, it's not clear whether Blomkvist cares, whether he's troubled by his lack of intimacy or simply resigned to it. Is he stoic or merely Swedish? Either way, he seems more a stock character than a real person. But the real disappointment in "Girl" comes in its final section, after the mystery of Harriet's disappearance has been solved. Without any warning, "Girl" metamorphoses into a boring account of Blomkvist's effort to take down the executive who originally won the libel lawsuit mentioned at the start of the novel. The story of his revenge is boring and implausible, relying heavily on lazy e-mail exchanges between characters. And so "Girl" ends blandly. Only Ake Daun and the Swedish tourist board can be happy about that. Alex Berenson is a reporter for The Times. His most recent novel is "The Ghost War."
Kirkus Review
What new angles on horse racing are left for veteran Francis (Dead Heat, 2007, etc.) to explore? His latest hero is a barrister who's also a passionate amateur steeplechase jockey. It's no wonder that Geoffrey Mason's fellow jockeys call him Perry, for he makes his living in the courtroom, not on the track. By any measure his least satisfying case is his unsuccessful defense of Julian Trent, accused of savaging a family with a baseball bat. Even though Trent is clearly guilty, his conviction is reversed on appeal, and as soon as he's released he sets about making his former counsel's life miserable--threatening him, trashing his home, attacking him physically. Even worse, a fortuitous telephone caller demands that the very junior Mason assume the defense of Steve Mitchell, the champion jockey accused of killing his longtime rival Scot Barlow--and that he lose the case, which looks easy enough to do in light of the evidence. To underline Mason's vulnerability, his shadowy enemy sends him photographs of his aging father and his new romantic interest, whom he clearly intends to harm if Mason doesn't play along. And it may be harder than Mason thought to cooperate, since it gradually becomes clear that Mitchell may not be guilty after all. Despite Mason's avocation, the outsider's view of racing takes a back seat to the courtroom sequences. Partnering for the second time with his son, Francis produces a whodunit more accomplished than ever but less distinctive than the work that put him on the map. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Three-time Edgar Award-winning author Dick Francis's first collaboration with his son, Felix, was the 2007 mystery Dead Heat, which debuted at No. 3 on the New York Times best sellers list. This is his second such partnership, also set in Francis's tried-and-true world of British horse-racing. Actor/narrator Martin Jarvis voices all the characters distinctly and believably; with the undercurrent of wry humor and masterful pacing, his narration nicely complements the character-driven writing. A wonderfully successful package for all popular fiction collections. [Also available from Books on Tape on CD (ISBN 978-1-4159-5962-6. $100) and as a digital download (ISBN 978-1-4159-5963-3. $NA); audio clips available through us.penguingroup.com and library.booksontape.com; the Putnam hc was recommended "for all public libraries," LJ 9/1/08.--Ed.]--Don Wismer, Cary Memorial Lib., Wayne, ME (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
