Architect Lee Morris inherits a partial ownership in the Stratton Park racecourse--and with it, a dangerous position among the warring upper-class family trying to settle its fate. Morris would like to see the course restored to its former grandeur, but the various Stratton heirs have plans of their own. When an explosion rocks the grandstands, the disagreement turns violent--and Morris finds himself in a race to save himself and his family from an unknown culprit...

Sadly A Dick Francis novel that will not be making it's way to the Winning enclosure! Slowly away from the stalls, The novel fails to make any headway & was tailed off at the end! Really disappointing as Dick Francis wrote so many great novels. The majority of the novel takes place at a Race Track, Apart from a very brief trip to London, the novel stagnates. The characters are two dimensional & you really don't care about them. The plot is weak in the extreme. A Trip to the Knackers yard for this novel I'm afraid!

THE best Dick Francis book! As always, there’s the magic of a good story teller, and learning about a profession (this time, being an architect builder with your own company) - But the special treat has been the 6 brothers (kids) included as meaningful characters. Each has a unique character and abilities. Their dad takes their questions and observations seriously and interacts with them meaningfully. Who each one of them is calls out a response of love from their dad that is just as individual as they are.
My initial thoughts were to give thanks for the similar behaviour of my own parents. And then, it reminded me so much of how I see God’s love for each one of us.

Immensely readable with an immensely likable leading man. My first Dick France’s book but definitely not my last.

One of my other favourites. I love Lee and all his misfit family

More of a family drama than his previous books. Lee Morris owns shares in the Stratton Race Course, inherited from his mother who had been married to Keith Stratton but whom she divorced after he beat and raped her. Keith's father, Lord Stratton, gave the race course shares to her as part of the divorce settlement. Upon his recent death, he divided his remaining shares among his children, Conrad, Keith and Ivan, and his grandchildren, Dart, Rebecca, Hannah and Forsythe. The remaining shares are held by Lord Stratton's sister, Marjorie. Lee is asked by the current race course manager, Roger, to attend the next shareholder meeting because the family is fighting over to keep the course as is, renovate or sell. Lee is not welcomed by the family at the meeting but stays and witnesses the fierce infighting with Keith demanding a sale, Conrad demanding a renovation and Marjorie manipulating all of them into doing nothing, for now. Meanwhile, she asks Lee to find out why Keith needs the money from the sale so badly and why Conrad is being bullied to rebuild the grandstand by an architect, Wilson Yarrow. Lee, an architect himself, asks to see the drawings and decides to ask his friends about them and their fellow classmate, Yarrow. Since it is the Easter holiday, Lee brings his 5 eldest boys to the track to watch the racing and while Lee is attending a meeting at an otherwise deserted course on Good Friday, someone sets off explosives to blow up the grandstand, injuring Lee and scaring the boys who were playing nearby. Could this be the work of the animal rights protestors hounding the track attendees? Lee sets out to find out but not before Keith and his daughter, Hannah, beat him and tell him to leave and not to try to blackmail or sue the family for his injuries. Rebecca, Conrad's daughter, also has a violent temper and she takes it out on everyone at the track on race days where she is a steeplechase jockey. She agrees with her father that the stands need to be renovated and pushes for that now after the explosion. Keith is pushing harder to sell before the track is worthless. A temporary tent is set up so that racing can continue during the holiday week and allowing time for a decision on a permanent solution. Eventually, Lee figures out that Yarrow, who was accused of cheating during school, is blackmailing Conrad to give him the contract for the renovation or else he will reveal that Rebecca is throwing races for the bookmakers. But Lee also figures out that the evidence of Rebecca's misdeed was faked by none other than Rebecca herself because she so desperately wants the track renovated and could not convince her father so she came up with the fake blackmail plot and roped in a willing Yarrow. It was Yarrow who set the explosion, under direction from Rebecca, to push Conrad toward a decision. Keith, meanwhile, was not wholly innocent as he had hired an actor to gather people to protest the track in order to force the family to sell. He was so enraged with Lee for messing with his plans that he tried to set fire to the tent and kill Lee's children but all Keith set on fire was himself. Another winner from Francis.

I adore the strong male characters in Dick Francis mysteries. The protagonist in this one could take a beating without complaint, out-manipulate bad guys full of uncontrollable rage, design beautiful homes from ruined historical buildings as both builder and architect, provide excellent parenting skills to his five sons, all while restoring a family-owned racetrack to great reknown. I want to marry a Francis-protagonist. What a renaissance man!

A dark tale of blackmail, domestic violence, adultery, incest, arson...you-name-it. Too much crime and a too decent knight make this an improbable romance. Ah! It could so easily been a gritty thriller, but Dick Francis' desire to not ruffle aristocratic feathers or upset the equilibrium has resulted in a mish-mash of noir and escapism. Recommended, with reservations.

I love Dick Francis novels. They're well written, exciting, and usually feature a complex but moral hero. Decider is one of those, featuring Lee Morris, an architect and builder with six young sons and a distant wife. Lee's mother's was briefly married to Keith Stratton, one of the very rich Stratton family who, over the years, have covered up all sorts of terrible things that the family has done, arson, assault, addiction, larceny, bribery, and incest. Luckily, Lee's mother was able to escape and marry a nice man. But Colonel Stratton gave her 8 shares in the racecourse, realizing how miserable his son had made her life. When the Colonel dies, the family bickers, and Lee, who is curious, goes to the shareholders meeting where he's met with curiosity and hatred. Some of the family want to sell the land and make money, others want to keep the racecourse, either to fix it up or leave it as it's always been. As Lee learns more about the various crimes committed (and always hushed up), he is beaten, kicked, and yelled at, but earns the respect of the manager of the racecourse and the Colonel's sister, Marjorie, who can keep most of the family in line with what he knows. When Lee takes five of his sons to see the course, he and one of his sons are caught up in an explosion, which crumbles the stands, and later, his sons are terrorized by Keith who sets fire to the tents and ends up burning to death. Lee, the level headed one, is invited to join the board of directors, as at least some of the family realize what a blessing he would be to this fractious family.

I was torn between 3 and 4 stars on the story. I rounded up to 4 stars because it kept me engaged and was a quick read. The story is about an British architect/builder who inherits a few shares of a racetrack and must deal with the dysfunctional rich family who owns the majority of the shares. The rich family is in disagreement on what to do with the racetrack and the protagonist gets drawn into the racetrack's future and the family drama.

I was not expecting the protagonist's children to be heavily involved in the story but they are a key part. I thought the inclusion of the boys was interesting especially the way they traveled and lived. In this day and age, the father would be considered unfit but in the story no one seemed to question the protagonist bringing his kids into odd situations and leaving them on their own. It was, though, hard to believe the boys would be as well behaved and perceptive as described in the story.

Although not a key part of the story, the architect's wife was odd, annoying, and unbelievable. All she wanted to do was have babies regardless of their ability to afford them or have a permanent place to house them. She seemed cold not only to her husband but even with the kids she comes across as distant. Her nagging and lack of concern for her husband when she learns about several life threatening situations was irritating.

I also thought the story would have been better if the writer had left out some of the sexual innuendos and relationships. The protagonist's fixation with Penelope was weird and served no purpose except to detract from the mystery. His obsession with her bordered on socially inappropriate and outside societal norms. And the last scene with his wife was too descriptive and totally unnecessary. I wish it had been edited out of the whole story.

There weren't really any surprises or major twists but overall I enjoyed the book and may read another one of Francis' books.

3.5/5

n  "Lord Stratton recently died," Roger said eventually. "A month ago."
"Yes, I noticed," I said.
"You sent flowers to the funeral."
"It seemed merely decent," I said, nodding.
The two men glanced at each other. Roger spoke.
"Someone told me he was your grandfather."
I said patiently, "No. They got it wrong. My mother was once married to his son. They divorced. My mother then married again, and had me. I'm not actually related to the Strattons."
It was unwelcomed news, it seemed. Roger tried again.
"But you do own shares to the racecourse, dont you?"
Ah, I thought. The feud.n

Lee Morris is an architect who happens to own shares to the family-owned Stratton Park Racecourse. When Lord Stratton, the major shareholder and decision maker of the racecourse passed away, Lee gets pulled into the Stratton family drama (and trust me, it's a lot of drama) to help vote on the fate of Stratton Park.

Oh, how I love a Dick Francis novel! I'd not read this one before, so it was a treat.

Lee Morris is a builder. An architect by education, he prefers to work alone. So, he finds ruined buildings (in England) and painstakingly rebuilds them. He also owns 8 out of 100 shares in a racecourse, which he inherited from his mother.

A married father of 6 sons, he takes 5 of them with him during Easter break and looks for a ruin for his next project, planning on stopping by the stockholders meeting of the racecourse. But nothing is so simple in a Dick Francis novel and so begins the story.

A lovely read that I read in a single day. I really enjoyed this book.

A mystery without a murder. Who blew up the stands at Stratton Park Racecourse and why? Read by the excellent Simon Prebble, and yes I know I filed it as a paperback and I don't care, and don't see why you should.

I read this when it first came out and promptly forgot the title, but parts of the story stayed with me. Since then I have dreamed of a large, open plan house with a loft--which remains a dream, but that's what fiction is all about. I didn't remember any of the actual story, though, just the man and his six sons and the wife who loves being pregnant. I had a sister in law like that. She loved being pregnant and being the centre of attention, she loved giving birth, she loved the tiny-baby-toddler phase. Then when the kid started kindergarten she got bored with her toy and wanted a new one. Anyway.

This is a different Francis hero. Instead of a drifter with daddy issues, we have a definite family man whose marriage is not doing so very well. They married young in what Colonel Potter called "the heat of...whatever heat you're in", he for her beauty and she for his progenitive prowess. But have no fear, Our Hero is still upright and upstanding, to the place that all and sundry (except The Bad Guy) find themselves opening their mouths and telling him all. And every. single. one. of them does a double take of some sort and asks themselves, "Why did I tell you all that?" Oh so believable. This time at least the Hero doesn't get tortured, but the bad guy gets his comeuppance in a rather horrible fashion I could have done without. Then comes a particularly nasty Big Reveal.

I have to say that on this second reading I didn't like Our Hero much. Granted, the Stratton family (a group antagonist, this time) is so dysfunctional that they make him look good by comparison--mostly because he adores his sons--but his sense of superiority to all around him (founded on what, exactly?) grated. He sneers openly at the bald man's attempt to find a way not to be bald, as if "he men" were above such issues. He repeatedly lusts after a lady barber young enough to be his daughter simply because--she looks like a young version of his wife? ick--, but he is oh so superior to others? Not really. The last 2 lines of the book gave it all away--of course he sired only sons. They are six little parcels of masculine validation.

Ugh.