This is a favorite of mine among Dick Francis’ novels. While the hero does start out as content, with neither families ties nor romantic interest to tie him down, he soon finds himself confronted with both. Phillip Nore is a man without a family. He basically grew up being fostered by a never-ending series of his mother’s friends. She was a charismatic woman who wanted to keep her son away from her druggy lifestyle. He’d had minimal interactions with her throughout his childhood, and none, in fact, past age 16. He assumes (rightly) that she has died of a heroin overdose.

Against his own instincts, Nore gets pulled into his mother’s family drama, meeting his grandmother and uncle, and learning of a younger sister he didn’t know existed. In his search for his sister, he reconnects with one of the women who took him in as a child. This shakes up his status as a loner, realizing there is comfort in connecting with others. Without rehashing the entire story, this new feeling leads Nore in a different direction with his life. No more floating along, avoiding not only relating to other people, but avoiding making any real personal choices.

In addition to this character growth, Francis also gives us a great mystery, with many a great antagonist. Nore uncovers evil plots. He also has to readjust his beliefs about a colleague, learning that someone he thought used his power for evil purposes actually might have done a little good.

In terms of what I call the ick factor, there was no creepy relationship to make me uncomfortable.  Yes, his mother did sleep with her own mother’s boyfriend, but this was alluded to only once, having happened in the past. No one was justifying this action. So no ick for me.

My favorite Francis book . The characters are very complex and you grow to really care about them . The use of photography as part of the mystery is interesting. I think Photographers ( the old school kind , that use a darkroom ) will appreciate it .

A few more new to me Dick Francis books have appeared in the Audible Plus catalog recently and this was one of them. As is usual for his books, they include a jockey and some unique hobby or interest. In this case, Phillip is both a jockey and a photographer, a hobby he learned from a caretaker he was left with as a child by his drug addicted mother. He gets involved in a murder investigation when a fellow jockey's father, himself a photographer, dies after a car crash one night. At first it looks like a simple accident but when his house is burgled twice, his widow beaten and the house eventually burnt down, Phillip knows that something is up. He searches though the items that the jockey friend had given to him, knowing that he himself dabbled in photography, and found that the dead photographer had a photographic record of blackmail containing both the damaging photos and the blackmail letters. Instead of turning this over to the police, Phillip decides to investigate the matter himself in order to protect the family. Of course, this turns out to be a bad decision and he is beaten and left for dead and then someone tries to kill him with poisonous gas. In the end, the beating and the poisoning were from two different people that the photographer was blackmailing, one of which killed him. There were also side plots where Phillip's rich grandmother was dying and wanted him to find his half sister who was about 10 years younger than Phillip because she wants to leave her money to the girl rather than her son, since she found out that he was gay, or Phillip, because his mother defied her order to have an abortion. This leads Phillip to reconnect with others who cared for him when he was young and one such meeting leads to a romantic relationship with a daughter. Also very typical of Francis books. Finally there was a controversy with one of the owners that Phillip rode for who wanted Phillip to lose races and that also tied back to the blackmailing photographer. This was not a bad book, just a formulaic one. Also, there seemed to be an unnecessarily large number of characters, which I found difficult to keep track of since I was listening to the audiobook.

I think this is a very good Dick Francis book to read if you only want to read one. The main character Philip Nore is appropriately damaged — made passive — by a difficult (!) childhood. The end of his middling and not completely clean career as a jockey is near enough in sight that he begins to rethink his self-concept and his future. So, he’s not the hero, champion jockey of several other entries in the series, but he has potential!
The plot is full of interest. The photographic information may be too much detail for some readers but is presented in bits at a time, IMO, not that hard to get through.
Despite some differences from the typical Francis hero, as Philip decides whether to act on some knowledge, we get a great quote that could come from just about any of them:
n  I looked out the windows at the Down for a while, and wandered around a bit fingering things and doing nothing much, waiting for the arrival of a comfortable certainty that knowledge did not involve responsibility. I waited in vain. I knew that it did.n

I am going through the early books of Dick Francis that I have not read. It seems that in each book, he picks a profession, outside of the racing scene, and tells us a little too much about it. Regardless, the books are entertaining and enjoyable, this one is no exception. I will try to get to all of his books.

"Reflex" by Dick Francis is a camera lens term, so add that to the standard jockey hero, whose natural passivity is activated by honest integrity, and asserts justice without officialdom. Narrator Philip Nore 30, was abandoned "just till Saturday" by his mother Caroline, dead from heroin addiction, to be raised by a series of friends. Samantha he tracks down. Charlie taught him photography and willed his equipment.

Helping injured rider Steve Millace with his crashed dead dad George's negatives leads to exposure and developing puzzles, blackmail, beatings on top of corruptly instigated horse falls. Earnest solicitor Jeremy Folk 25, more intelligent than his fumbling manner lets on, "with office-coloured skin" p6 forwards dying estranged grandmother's request to find hitherto unknown half-sister Amanda, and suffers assassination attempt targeted on Nore. Break-ins, burglary, arson, blackmail. Total surprise (only after do I remember I read this before) are the "alternate suggestions", hidden for hundreds of pages (p350). Bruises, blood, danger and suspense.

Nore finds kind welcoming Samantha and her lovely lively daughter Clare. "It began in friendship and progressed to passion. Ended in bretathlessness and laughter, sank to murmurs and sleep. The best it had ever been for me." p431 Second run "A tingling, fierce, gentle, intense, turbulent time." p433. Overall, from feelings of familiar comfort to coming home. Adult content does not have to be explicit or crude (my x-rated).

Francis has a knack for conveying sophisticated technical information easily, unique turn of phrase description, dropping hints, stringing along. A man's photograph is identified, but 17 pages till we learn the villain p452. The author is an expert director of character and action. We cheer for growing demonstrations of Nore's heroism.

"One thing my haphazard upbringing had given me was an almost limitless capacity for waiting. Waiting for people to come, who didn't; and for promises to be fulfilled, that weren't." p13
"Survival for so many years had been a matter of accepting what I was given ... I had taught myself for so long not to want things that weren't offered to me that I now found very little to want."p58
"Doing nothing was weak and wrong. If I learned all George's secrets I would have to accept the moral burden of deciding what to do about them ... and doing it." p288

Typo:
p396 "He won't did." for die

First book by Dick Francis I read. Now I own them all.

I love Dick Francis mysteries. They are well planned with a strong hero. I also love the fact that the mystery is not always a murder. For me. Murders are unnecessary. Missing diamonds, horses dying, and frustrations solved make better stories. He writes about embezzlement, stolen whiskey, and of course, Crooked trainers. Most of his books have horse racing as part of the background.
I have been buying them again on kindle when I need a good read. I can carry a selection with me where ever I am. I would really like to buy High Stakes on kindle. It is one of my favorites.

Good mix of photographic methods and horse racing in order to solve a murder mystery.

For most of my adult life, male readers have told me I **have** to read Dick Francis if I like mysteries and animals and photography, and because it was all male recommendations, I resisted. Until now.

The book was good, well-written, and I enjoyed the lessons in darkroom photography, with the processes and chemicals involved in achieving different results. The friendship between Phillip, Steve, and Steve's mom was charming and relatable, and I really liked how they bonded and grew together. The conclusion was clever and satisfying as well. What I didn't like is what I suspected it would have in abundance, as is usually the case in books men recommend to me and that's graphic and unnecessary violence. Brutish behavior. Macho BS. Injuries seemingly just for the sake of showing people in pain. Half the "good guys" end up hospitalized, people are beaten to a pulp, there are explosions, and of course, since it's a horseracing setting, you have injuries from horses too. The small addition of the romance that came up felt stilted and icky. There was no palpable chemistry, and what intelligent woman would find a broken, black-and-blue jockey all that attractive? Implausible.

So, good and bad, but the bad was mostly an expected disappointment.

Photography nerd Philip & jockey (but of course!) juggles family drama looking into the mystery of a possible half-sister as revealed by his rich, estranged grandmother on her deathbed; the threat of hurt and even death as he gets to the bottom of a secret blackmailing plot after the seemingly accidental death of a unpopular race photographer; and major upheavals in his life as he meets first a new friend, then his future wife, through the aforementioned events. I really enjoyed this.

Dick Francis is always a good read. The mystery is good and I always feel I learn a little more about what it is like to be a jockey. This book had an interesting twist in that photography was a main theme throughout the mystery. I followed the mystery, discovering the evidence as the hero did. This was a thoroughly satisfying mystery.

Who would enjoy it? People who like racing or horses and mysteries. People who like photography and mysteries. If you like all three as I do, then you should love it.

Sometimes you just need to read a Dick Francis book. Even if you’ve read it before.