Better than average, and I love the horses.

Risk by Dick Francis


As always I love a Dick Francis book--he always is full of suspense and has a unexpected finish. You can't wait for the next one!
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In which the Young Man faces fraudsters.

I must have only read this one time, and before I got involved in AML and interested in fraud myself, because I didn't remember whodunnit. Good case study for BSA / AML and audit professionals!

A solid, quick read, and an interesting (if sometimes silly) plot. The only downside is that Francis can't seem to decide if his bad guys are bad or not. They'll kidnap, abuse, cheat, steal, lie, defraud, etc, but when a single murder would have let them get away with things completely, they back off...
Still, an entertaining book.

Dick Francis at his best. Well plotted out and gripping. A fun experience if you like kidnapping and escape, criminals you did see coming and criminals you never thought of, and just enough romantic tension to raise an eyebrow.
A fulfilling way to end the year (and my 2020 reading challenge!).

Ralph Cosham is the narrator for the audiobook version of this novel.

3.5 stars, rounded up.

3.5 stars. This was my least favorite Francis book so far and it was still pretty good. Roland is an accountant by day and a jockey by night. After a big win at the track, he is kidnapped and stowed away on a ship for weeks. Reading about a character who is trapped for chapters on end at the beginning of the book when you have no idea what is going on and have not had time to get invested in either the character or the story is sort of dull and did not contain any of the suspenseful tension that the writer was likely trying to create. He eventually escapes and makes his way back to England where he picks up his life like he never left until the thugs try to kidnap him again. He manages to escape this time but continues to go to work and the race track. He thinks that the kidnapping is revenge from some men, recently out of jail, who were sent to prison after Roland turned them in for tax evasion. Meanwhile, he meets a new trainer who is one of his partner's clients and Roland has to do some accounting work for him since his partner is on vacation. The trainer asks Roland to ride one of his horses in the next race, which he does and promptly gets thrown and almost killed. We find out later that the dangerous ride was intentional. After the race, Roland gets kidnapped again and is kept in a van for 5 days before the police find him after getting a tip. Roland eventually figures out what I had already, that his partner is dirty and was helping the trainer cook his books. The trainer didn't want Roland looking into his accounts so he wanted him out of the way until his partner came back, hence the kidnapping.

'Endurance is like tax. You're silly to pay more than you have to, but you can't always escape it.'

I recall, back when I was younger, that Dick Francis was featured often in Reader's Digest selections. I think my uncle also has a copy of his novel. Since I never had the passion for the sport of kings, I simply ignored him and read more classics.

I admit, I hadn't read him until two days ago. But now I'm not surprised why a lot of people like reading him. His prose flows: it's simple, with little eclat, but it's very functional. He also admixes acerbic, world-weary wit in his major character, who in this case is Roland Britten. In the beginning of the novel, Ro finds himself imprisoned inside a boat cabin after winning the Gold Cup. While he thought it may have had anything to do with his accidental triumph, (Dick Francis features characters tangentially involved with horse-racing, but his novels don't really need a deep understanding of steeplechase) he looked further and simply discovered that was just a concurrent happenstance. As he pokes and plods further into the reasons why he was abducted, he discovers that the perpetrator is close to home - it's also partly the reason why he remains alive at the end of the novel.

Although the plot isn't really anything avant-garde, I definitely enjoyed Francis's characterization. Britten was a great character because he took the hits evenly and in stride, and he could make these types of comments regarding women: '[She has] A quick mind; a fascinating face, tall slender body: there was nothing egalitarian about nature.' I think I also liked this novel because I see myself in Britten: he'll do what it takes to survive, but always within the bound of ethics. I wish I also had one of his properties: women really like him. ;)

Roland Britten is kidnapped but he has no idea why. Kept hostage in a tiny room on a boat. He tries to unravel who kidnapped him and why. It wasn't bad. The solitary time, while he was kidnapped sort of dragged on. I get why it was there, but it carried on a little too much. Probably 3 1/2 stars. No language.

Roland Britten is an accountant and part-time steeplechase jockey. The day he rides Tapestry, the horse wins the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Roland is kidnapped after the race and wakes up in the sail hold of a sail boat at sea. He's kept in the dark for about 10 days, and manages to escape. When he arrives home, the police don't seem concerned as he's not been hurt. Three days later, he's kidnapped again, this time kept in a dark van in a deserted garage. He is released by the police after another three days. He's had the time to think about who wants him out of the way, and decides to find that person before they can hurt him again.

When I first read this book, I thought it was just a mediocre Dick Francis thriller, but this time around, I liked it more. My problem with this book is that the girl that Roland is captivated by seems to be too selfish and mean and flippant. Maybe it's just the language but I didn't like her much.

Not the best Francis novel, but even mediocre Francis is better than most authors can achieve.

Not the strongest entry in his canon, with the bad guy being fairly obvious from the first mention. It seems that concussions in this world are quite easily overcome and were British police truly that blasé about kidnapping?