Horsing around with Dick & Felix Francis

I have long been a fan of traditional British murder mysteries. I can remember collecting all the Agatha Christie detective novels I could find at used books stores and garage sales back while I was still in high school. When she died in 1976 (also the year I graduated), I thought that would be the end of those kinds of stories. Years later I was encouraged by a local library volunteer to try the writings of Dick Francis. I was once again transported to the English countryside and the cloak and dagger world of gripping British murder yarns. Needless to say, I quickly read through all his horse racing related mysteries on the shelves of my local public library. Francis' wife Mary was long thought to be the brains behind his books, and when she too died in 2000, many in the know said that her death would be the end of his long string of successful detective novels. I assumed (wrongly) that I had read the last of his entralling tales. Not so. With the assistance of his son and long-time manager, Felix, Dick Francis continued to turn out decent horse-themed murder books every few years until his own death on my birthday (February 14) in 2010. I have been using the days I was off from school this past holiday season to catch up on the titles I have missed. They are all stand-alone titles, but a few share common characters and locations.

Dead Heat is about a chef who caters a fancy dinner at a prestigious racing venue only to have most of his guests come down with food poisoning. Was it his fault so many got ill? Was it somebody trying to ruin his reputation? How far would they go to damage him and his career? When several guests at the next banquet end up dead, a page-turning, twisting trail of drug smuggling, money laundering and murder leads readers on a thrilling ride.

I finished Silks at about 2:30 in the morning. Not a good idea for the night before the first day of a new semester, but what can I say? I was hooked in the story. A part-time amateur jockey and full-time lawyer uncovers a plot to frame a fellow winning jockey for murder. When he starts digging for the truth, thugs with baseball bats come threatening and calling in the middle of the night with messages for him to back off...or else. Of course, that just makes him want to dig deeper to find out what really happened to set this chain of events in motion.

Even if you've never been on the back of a horse, or have any interest in racing, I think you'll like the environment of any of the Francis family's horse-themed novels. Some are more in-depth in the racetrack settings, but just as many are on the fringes with a particular race, or horse, or track as the background for the real story. If you like a good detective story/murder mystery. Give anything by Dick Francis a try.