”It came, the blinding flash in the eyes, as we soared into the air. White, dazzling, brain shattering light, splintering the day into a million fragments and blotting out the world in a blaze as searing as the sun. I felt Revelation falling beneath me and rolled instinctively, my eyes open and quite unable to see. There there was the rough crash on the turf and the return of vision from light to blackness and up through grey to normal light.” Two years ago Sid Halley crashed during a horse race and horse shoes made razor thin by use sliced up his left arm like roast beef at the deli counter. The doctors wanted to take his arm, but he insisted that they sew it up and hope for the best. The best turned out to be an arm so deformed that people can’t bear to look at it and can’t bear to look away. Sid learns to hide his hand in his pocket. His days as a championship steeplechase jockey are over. He has a friend give him a job in his detective agency out of pity or with the hopes to put him back on his feet? Sid isn’t sure, but he is itching to get back to feeling useful. The novel begins with Sid recovering from a bullet wound to his stomach. His first stakeout did not go very well. His wife has left him, but his father-in-law the Admiral, who didn’t want him in the first place, is sticking with him. It seems like when things start going wrong for someone they keep going wrong. Sid barely has time to recover from one disaster before another is staring him in the face. Sid finds himself saddled with a nonexistent personal life, but hopes that throwing himself into a case will at least keep him occupied. He starts investigating a series of mishaps at a local racetrack. This quickly escalates into a scam worth millions and when things are worth millions people who get in the way start to get hurt. Sid can’t clear all the jumps that have been put in front of him. Desperate to help, and motivated by the natural tenacity that made him such a great jockey lands him at the mercy of a trio of crooks who enjoy administering pain to cripples. And when they are beautiful it somehow lends more pain to the process. ”Doria Kraye stood there, maliciously triumphant. She was dressed theatrically in white slender trousers and a shiny short white jacket. Her dark hair fell smoothly, her face was as flawlessly beautiful as ever: and she held rock steady in one elegant long-fingered hand the little .22 automatic I had last seen in a chocolate box at the bottom of her dressing-case.”‘The end of the line, buddy boy,’ she said.”Sid does meet a woman who doesn’t wish to be as beautiful as Doria Kraye, but she does wish that she could be normal, just plain would be fine. Fire has turned a portion of Zanna’s face into a dreadful mess. She can’t just hide her face in her pocket like Sid can his hand.The interesting part that Dick Francis explores so deftly in this novel is the way people react to deformity. It brings out the absolute worst in some people by inspiring mystifying hatred or a smothering bout of pity or a chilling abhorrence when all anyone wants who has suffered some crippling accident is to be treated normal. Zanna moves her desk at work so the good side of her face is what people see. Even though she can’t see her face, she can see her face in the eyes of the people who notice the burns. The blanched expressions and the looks of horror never allow her to forget. I used to believe that people who suffering these crippling injuries will eventually adjust and they do, but unfortunately the people that they see day in and day out do not ever allow them to just move on. They have to deal with the reactions to their injuries every day. Unless a person is strong willed their injury will end up defining them. Even when they have lost their jockey some of the horses want to finish the race.It has been a long time since I’ve read Dick Francis, too long. I enjoy horse racing, although I mostly stick to The Triple Crown of racing and the big races leading up to those events. I did recently, almost by accident, watch a steeplechase race from England on television. It was fascinating. The jumps, the jockeys who get thrown, and the horses that continue to run the race without their jockeys. I had never seen anything like it before. I don’t know how they keep enough steeplechase jockeys ambulatory to keep having races. That bit of fortuitous channel flipping did plant the seed back in my mind to read the Sid Halley series by Francis. I’d never read them, but always heard they were excellent. Next in the series is Whip Hand which many fervent Francis fans consider to be his best book. I for one can’t wait!
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.
What do You think about Odds Against (2005)?
Another one Dick Francis’ masterpieces. It is the first of four books written about the main character of the book Sid Halley. The others are: Whip Hand, Come to Grief and Under Orders. They should be read in order. Sid Halley was one of the best steeplechase jockeys in Great Britain. However, a fall from a horse changed his life forever; his left hand was stepped on by a horse, has extensive nerve and tendon damage, and cannot be surgically repaired. However, Sid receives a second chance at life by becoming a private investigator. It is a fast moving and suspenseful book. I think you will like it. As always, a warning about the English culture, morality, and language although minor is present.
—Lwg63
I've come to think of Dick Francis as a safe, predictable read. Each story, though materially different in circumstance, is crafted around some aspect of horse racing with each unique angle of each story being richly researched and presented as the story unfolds. In this story, however, I found more grit than expected. (Read that as a positive.) The climax scene was well presented with dynamic pacing and more protagonist angst than I've come to expect in a Dick Francis novel. Not to say that his other protagonists are lite weights, rather that he really beats the hell out of this one. Also, there are psychological elements in play as the hero moves through his arc. All in all, a great read. This is book one in a four book series. Needless to say, I'm in it for the duration.
—Michael Fox
This book first introduces Sid Halley, one of Francis' two recurring heroes, the jockey-turned-detective with a damaged left hand. Halley has been drifting through life since his career-ending injury; a further injury (caused by a bullet) and the not so subtle intervention of his father-in-law bring a change to his attitude, a radically different outlook, and a desire to work effectively and properly at his new job. He is badly frightened, and physically damaged ~ two things Francis excells at writing, his fear, especially, is thoroughly convincing ~ but succeeds in both defeating the baddies and renewing his life. There are at least two more Sid Halley books: Whip Hand and Come to Grief.
—Carolyn
