Take a familiar formula for your novel and transform it by placing it in a rare and unusual setting, and the tried and true may become new and exciting. This is what Dick Francis, the veteran author of racecourse thrillers, has done with The Edge. The scene of the action is not just in Canada, but aboard a VIA Rail train. A special train, loaded with race goers, owner, grooms, and horses, sets off from Toronto on route to Vancouver, B.C. Along the way, there are special races at courses in Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver.

Into this new and different setting, we place one of Mr. Francis' more interesting heroes: Tor Kelsey, the invisible man. Tor is an investigator for the Jockey Club in England. His specialty is blending into the woodwork so that the bad guys never realize that he's around. Tor is hot on the trail of Julius Apollo Filmer, a very bad actor against whom nothing has yet been proved. Filmer has gone to a lot of trouble to join the Great Transcontinental Mystery Train Race, and it's certain that he's up to no good. It's up to Tor to put a spoke in Filmer's wheel, and to ensure that no one spoils the week-long journey across Canada.

This is a novel with a Grand Hotel type of cast. There are the dozen or so owners, a troupe of actors putting on a murder mystery show, the train crew from the conductor down to the sleeping room attendants and assorted other characters along the way. Francis draws his characters sharply, with sympathy for the troubled ones and admiration for those who are competent at demanding tasks. Tor disguises himself as Tommy, a waiter in the train's dining room, and he throws himself into that role. He learns to fold napkins and pour wine, all the while keeping an eye out for any actions that threaten the tranquility of the trip. How, while remaining invisible, can Tommy gain the attention of the attractive Nell Richmond?

You can enjoy the details about how a small city on rails is run, the description of the meals served in the dining car, the magnificent Canadian scenery, and the lively scenes around the race tracks. The undercurrent of threat - the mysterious gaunt man who seems to be up to no good, a groom who is frightened out of his wits, the unaccountable behavior of Sheridan Lorrimore - keep you from taking the enjoyable journey for granted. There are some truly frightening events, as when the teenaged Xanthe Lorrimore opens the door leading to her family's private car ... and there's nothing there!

A star quality entertainment, The Edge has features to appeal to many readers.

A solid mystery. Definitely would make me want to take a cross-country train ride, if I were super rich and didn't have to ride peasant class all the way...

Full of twists and turns, this was interesting in the setting, and the characters were very definitely well put together. If you like horses,horse-racing and trains, you'll like this book.

I generally love Dick Francis, but The Edge disappointed me. I got lost in irrelevant asides, and after 19 chapters, I decided I didn't care whodunnit or what they'd done. I guess I'll never know, and I don't care at all.

Good entertaining, light mystery. Nice distraction.

I forget how good Dick Francis mystery’s are. This was a great plot. Tor Kelsey works for the British Jockey Club and is asked to take a Transcontinental Canadian Train from Toronto to Vancouver with a bunch of horses, their owners, their grooms and a mystery tour. Disguised as a waiter, Kelsey is watching a villain the Club has been trying to catch for years. Julious Appollo Filmer is suspected of murder but it was never proven. So Kelsey is trying to catch him in an act of law breaking so he can be banished from racing forever. What he doesn’t know is, he will actually enjoy the ride himself even if he is a lowly waiter. I was given a Dick Francis book by my Aunt because she knew I liked horses. And yes, Francis’s books are loaded with information on horses. But the mystery in these books are some of the best. It’s been a while since I have engaged in a Dick Francis mystery. After reading this, it has me anxious to get lost in another.

This has been on my list a long time, recommended by a colleague, head of security. I wasn't sure what to expect. It was longer than anticipated and didn't have the traditional murder mystery set up, but I grew more and more interested as the pages turned. I thought of this because I just returned from Toronto and wanted fiction set in Canada. I'll look for another by this author, and I may look up that former colleague to see how he is doing.

An average whodunnit.

Now I want to take a train ride, and maybe go to a horse race. This is a beautiful book. Everything you could want from a thriller. I love the main character, a super rich heir who likes to work for a living to keep himself grounded. There is a villain (several villains) you love to hate. A terrific love interest on a low boil. The drama acted out on the train, as well as the real life drama of families in crisis. As a bonus there is a grandmother who tugs at your heart and a calvary that come to rescue the day at the last minute. A lovely story to take you away from real life for awhile.

One of the longer Dick Francis books, this one has a huge amount going on and yet doesn't get bogged down at all. Even our secondary romance plot is kept terse by nature of the setup, so the pace is great. This is Francis's attempt to write his own sort of Murder on the Orient Express, except here our hero is spying upon a man they know to be a murderer but can't convict, in a game of a cat and mouse.

I'm not sure how many other Francis books setup the villain so clearly in the opening paragraph so that this also becomes one of the few of his stories with no real mystery/reveal aspect, and barring resting on a fairly dubious coincidence for one driving factor, this is a really nicely put together plot to boot.

The only slight negative is a vague tendency towards sexism, showing itself as a number of male gaze moments with respect to how women look and moment towards the end where 'nitwit girl' has an implication behind it about how women aren't as competent as men with computers. None of this is nearly strong enough to deduct any stars or redact from the story's strengths.

Library Audible (A reminder) The UK jokey club have a ruthless criminal, Filmer, in there midst who has aready evaded a provable guilty verdict by the use of witness intimidation and murder. Filmer was free to run his horses and be at race meeting as no solid evidence remained or new evidence could be found.
The key character here is Tor a young man who by 25 had inherited a trust fund fortune and was employed as an undercover security person at race meetings to spot possible illicit activity. He was doing the job for something to do, after travelling for seven years. He had been brought up by his Aunt and had been around horses for most of his life so knew the ins and outs. He had learnt from an actor how to alter his appearance as well in passing that is. So he was not noticed or remembered by the people he was observing including Filmer. He had got himself binoculars and a lighter both with hidden cameras.

So Tor was sent to Canada to follow Film and assist in maintaining security on the high-class, transcontinental horse-racing special train from Toronto 3,400 miles to Vancouver. The train was specially hired and had a horse carriage owners sleeping carriage and a specail carriage carriage for the super rich family of Lorrimores whose son was kicked out of Cambridge then hushed up due to his pyschopath tendency evidenced by his killing of cats that Julius Filmer found out about by chance. The son near the jpurney's end committed suicide as he realised his inappropriate behaviour to family and others was not desirable by jumping from the train and falling several hundred feet to his death. An impulse moment. In short, Tor travelling noted as one of the mystery actors and as a waiter Tommy identifies the ex disgruntled railway sabateur hired by filmer for frightening selected targets and possible train sabotage. The sabatuer is a loose canon even for Filmer and is foiled three times from creating a catastrophe.
Filmer M.O. was to identify some weakness in a target horse owner and then threaten them with exposure if they did not sell their horse/s to him. Motive seemed to be more for the power than money. He used older ruffian men as thugs to murder and frighten where neccessary like the witnesses at the trial.
Tor/Yommy also falls for the organiser Nell. At the end a set up when Filmer goes to settle on the horse he has manipulated from Mercer Lrrimore. He is in fact faced with recorded questioning from the senior members of the Canadian Jockey club. And all his activites come out including his use of the sabateur.

I had read this in the past, had no memory of it, which usually is not a good sign. As it began I nearly gave up as the premise of Jockey Club investigator traveling incognito on a train trip across Canada seemed not too promising. However, the book grew on me, and the mixture of mystery and insider view of travel by train proved very appealing. To my surprise this proved one of my favorite Dick Francis novels.