I've read Dick Francis before but enjoyed this one so much I will be picking up more from him in the near future. I actually found myself disappointed at remembering that I had finished this book when I would find a moment to hit "play."

I've only read a few of his books years ago and, as this one does, it is my understanding that they all deal in some way with horse racing. I don't know if any of his others are written as a "series" but this one is stand alone. It features and architect who specializes in refurbishing old relics and creating new and exciting dwellings - anything from old pubs to barns. He has SIX boys so this story had 2 aspects of the story that had me interested from the beginning: architecture and multiple children.

This mystery isn't gruesome in any way and while there were some truly despicable characters, nothing from this that I had to mute if a child walked in. Very enjoyable.

I love this one. It's the first mystery he's ever written where the hero had kids, so he gave him seven. All boys. On the other hand, he went back to the unhappy marriage theme letting the wife have an affair and the hero long to have one. Can't have everything. A great example of the history factor where it is only by learning what characters have done that the hero can blackmail his way to safety. Also a fine example of psychological detection, since the hero must consider the various members of a large family to figure out who is the criminal. Compounding the difficulty of figuring it out, there are multiple crimes and criminals. More stock Francis: the older iron-willed woman, wealthy, capable of graciousness that the hero comes to like and admire (the Queen Mother I can't help but wonder?) and the angelic mother (now dead in this case). He deals with topical issues again, namely domestic and sexual violence, and I love the architecture stuff. Best of all, the hero lives in a barn with his brood.

1 Jan 1998

This novel stands out because Lee is one of the few Francis characters to have children. And Lee’s love for his children is very strong. It’s strange because the character does not have a good relationship with his wife and the romance, if you wish to call it that seems to occur with a character that really isn’t an entity. In fact, Lee’s wife Amanda seems to be a Disney mother – not there but supposedly a good one.
tThat said Lee and his children are extremely well drawn. One wonders if Francis was making some comment on marriage, divorce and children. Or perhaps this is an experiment of a protagonist with children, just in case Francis had decided to take Kit or Sid there.

My 4th DF book, and by far my favorite. Except for the final page resolution which I did not like elements of.

The downside of this one was the rather unbelievably awful aristocratic family that is fighting over the racecourse. They were a little too cartoonish. But I really enjoyed Lee Morris, his laissez-faire but affectionate parenting of 6 young sons (well, only 5 feature), and his work as an architect and restorer of "ruins." That vocation made sense of his call to step in and play the "decider" who tried to fix the mess of a family squabble over the inheritance and future of the racecourse. I think this is one of my favorites of my Francis audiobinge, even if not one of the very best. Mostly for Lee with his kids.

This is a mystery where jealousy grows from decisions made long ago causing violence to erupt around a family trying to make difficult decisions in the present. This is my least favorite of the dick Francis mysteries. Still, the writing is good, and the plot is well executed. To me, most of the characters are not likable, and they seem shallow somehow. This isn't normally how people are drawn in Francis's books.

There are books that readers cannot put down, and there are some books that readers
cannot get through a chapter without stopping. Decider, by Dick Francis, is in the middle ground
of those two books. This mystery book was published in 1993, and it puts a spin on horse racing.
Decider is a mystery about a family trying to figure out what to do with an old racecourse. When
the stands mysteriously blow up, the family tries to figure out who blew up the stands. Decider is
a good book because of the plot development that occurs throughout the book.
The plot in Decider changes the book from mediocre, to interesting. The characters in the
book are decent, and there isn’t really humor in the book. With a decent plot line this book would
be just okay, but because the plot keeps you turning the pages, it makes the book better. This is
shown very early in the book where the mystery starts. When the stands blow up out of nowhere,
the plot becomes more interesting. Something this chaotic in a short period of time makes the
story much better to read. Without this type of change, the story would be bland, and the reader
would want to stop reading. This also happens at the end, when the mystery is solved. The way
Dick Francis keeps the plot interesting is great. There are sudden turns throughout the book that
we don’t see coming that keep the reader entertained. The book wouldn’t be the same without
the chaotic plotline.
Dick Francis’ mystery, Decider, the book is enjoyable because of the plot in the story.
This is a book that many readers will enjoy because it can connect with kids, but also adults. The
story is not too complicated, but also one that older people can enjoy. This book is great for
readers aging from teens to adults. This book is one that didn’t have the greatest characters, but
had a great story that was enjoyable for readers.

Lee Morris is the kind of guy you’d want for a friend. He’s self-assured in many ways, physically strong and mentally at the top of his game. Lee makes a living by prowling around Britain scouting out old ruined buildings and businesses he can remodel, restore, and revitalize.

Lee shares his house with his wife, Amanda, and six boys. He’s a good dad despite the coldness and apathetic distance of the marriage, which is crumbling and dying not from verbal abuse so much as from a lack of love and compassion.

As this book opens, Lee has just finished restoration of an old barn, turning it into the house he, Amanda, and the boys now share. It’s a remarkable structure, a real attention getter to any visitor. And Lee indeed has some visitors as this book begins. Too officials from a nearby racetrack come to beg for his help. It seems the track’s owner has died, leaving in his wake a family tearing itself apart over what should be done with the aging track and grandstands. But why would the visitors come to Lee Morris? Because many years ago, before Lee was born, his mother was married briefly to one of the hyper-abusive sons of the wealthy racetrack owner. He regularly beat Lee’s mother and once impregnated her against her will. So traumatized was she by that event that she couldn’t raise the resulting child—a girl. She left the home, but the family quickly closed ranks around the son, and she agreed to never mention the abuse and marital rape as long as she could simply be left alone. The racetrack owner, a kindly enough man, recognized that his son was inherently evil, and gave Lee’s mom several shares in the track, assuming she could sell them to gain enough money to start anew. Instead, she kept the shares, and they eventually reverted to her son, Lee, upon her death. He’s paid little attention to them over the years, simply going about his business remodeling old buildings and selling them. But on a particular spring day just before Easter, two gentlemen from the track arrive at Lee’s home to plead with him to assist in preserving the track and its grandstands. His eight votes, they feel, could make a difference in terms of the track’s preservation.

Lee initially declines their offer, but a series of events cause him to change his mind and actually show up at a board of directors meeting wherein all of the family factions with their naked hatred for one another are in full bloom.

Amanda wants Lee and the boys out of the house for a week, so she insists they go with him to the track during the boys’ spring break. While there, they witness a horrible racing accident that kills a rider and horse. And on Good Friday, one of Lee’s sons notices what look to be wires connecting plastic explosive charges together running throughout the grandstands. He quickly alerts his father, and the boy and his father must now rescue the other boys who are playing in the grandstands. All but one boy leaves the area, and while Lee searches for his 9-year-old son, the stands explode in a horrific manner. Lee and the boy are reunited just seconds before the grandstands blow, and while the boy is spared, Lee sustains injuries on his back and legs as some of the structure falls in on him.

The remainder of this book focuses on Lee’s efforts at revealing some of the destructive family secrets that prevent its members from working together. Lee is in constant danger from family members who want him dead, including his half sister, the girl born as a result of the forced sexual assault and the man once briefly married to his mother.

You may be able to predict how this one turns out, but it’s a thrilling action-packed mystery just the same. Dick Francis does a magnificent job as usual with this plot. You’ll learn fascinating things about British architecture, but not to such a degree that you will glaze over and lose interest.

What singularly strikes me about this book is Francis’s way of developing his characters. Even Lee’s sons are beautifully developed and super-realistic. Their differences and strengths and weaknesses are used by this author to move the plot along nicely. So vivid is the description of Lee and Amanda’s crumbling atrophying marriage that your very heart hurts for both of them.

The Stratton family, who are so hateful to one another and so divided as to the future of the racetrack, are also masterfully developed. This book ends very satisfactorily in one sense, and somewhat sadly in another, but I won’t go into that here lest by some means I spoil it for you.

If you’re looking for that perfect action mystery thriller to serve as the soundtrack for your spring cleaning efforts or even to hang onto for that first trip to the beach or the mountains, this one really fills that niche. There aren’t so many characters that you’ll get confused trying to figure out who’s who. The plot is consistently fast and constantly interesting. You’ll marvel at Francis’s economy of words—saying so much with so little. This is a rather short book, but long on character development and excitement. You’ll see the basic decency in both Lee and Amanda and yearn for them both to find the best solution that works for them. You’ll cheer for those boys, too. So detailed are their descriptions that you feel as if you know each one of them individually.

The main character in this nove, Lee, is a classic Francis hero, who is very much a strong-minded individual and self-reliant. He's unhappily married but happy to be the father of six sons. His musings on his marriage are very much a mature view of what makes for a ontented life.

The mystery/thriller aspect is about a troubled, violent upper-class family who Lee has a past connection to. Because he feels he owes the late patriarch of the Stratton family, Lee involves himself and his children in a dangerous situation relating to a race course.

The action-filled, dramaticc ending was rather rushed, in my opinion, but that happens in real life, I suppose, so I will give this four stars. It's a thriller, not a deep piece of literature, and I felt empathy with the protaagonist and liked him. No one was perfect in this, so they all felt credible.

I probably would have given this one five stars but was so disappointed in the ending!

Lee Morris is an architect with six sons (all young). It is obvious from his story that he is very proud of them and loves each one but sadly, his marriage is struggling. However he is committed to his family, and is about to prove his commitment when his family is introduced to danger at the racetrack.

Lee is (through marraige) distantly related to a family of shareholders and because of a tragic past, has never attended the meetings. However, learning that the racetrack is faced with either a permanent closing, or pointless renovations (Lee's field), he decides to attend a meeting. The hostility of the family is perhaps a little overdone but has the reader pulling for Lee all the way.

When one of Lee's boys discovers a trail of hidden wire at the racetrack, the danger begins and as always, the hero of the novel will have to prove his mettle.

Another fast-paced Dick Francis mystery that kept my interest all the way.

All Dick Francis books are related to horse racing (sometimes, very remotely, but there is atleast a mention of horses). The heroes are all the same, loveable, resilient, loyal, clever and humble, someone whom you would want as a friend. Yet, the mysteries featured in his books are non formulaic. In every book, we find a unique mystery and an additional trade (apart from horse racing ) which we can learn about. In this book it is architecture - the protagonist Lee Morris in an architect who restores ruins, make them habitable and sell them.

Lee Morris is slightly different from other Dick Francis's heroes - he is not single, he has a big family with 6 sons (and he is only 35 yrs old) . He is huge but doesn't use his physical stature to intimidate people. He might as well be a psychiatric counsellor. Everyone is ready to pour their troubles in front of him and then wonder why are they even telling him their inner-most secrets.
Apart from the mystery, Lee and his sons's interactions made interesting read. The way he turned around the disaster after the bomb blast was ingenious. The race course manager calls it a miracle many times.

The characterization was great. Each one in the Stratton family and their motivations was insightful. But I found Lee's wife Amanda quite weird. Even if she didn't love her husband, she was not at all worried about her sons who were in the stadium when the bomb blast occurred. She insists that Lee keep them with him for a few more days !
I thought it would have been better if the wife was dead. She didn't add anything to the plot other than more children ( I don't think she even loves her children)

This is an enjoyable mystery and highly recommended. There are many more in Dick Francis's stables and I might be bingeing on them this year.

family relationships

An excellent story exploring human relationships in close families and the pressures that result with disastrous consequences. A very exciting page turner but too short!