3.5 Stars

Decider by Dick Francis is another crime & investigation story with an explosion, danger, tension, family dynamics, drama, mystery, suspense, tension, intrigue, and more.
->2023 Reading Challenge.
->Glennie's Collection
Dick Francis novels were a familiar fixture in our household when I was growing up, as both my parents loved his books. He was amongst the first ‘adult’ reads that I explored at the time, and over the years I have read everything he’s written. I remember every time my mother read one of his books, she'd tell me about him and how he'd gone from being an RAF pilot to being the Queen Mother's favourite jockey, before retiring to become a journalist/writer.
Since my mother passed away over a year ago, I have been making my way through her book collection, finally. I decided to make reading her entire collection a part of my reading challenge for the next couple of years (she has a HUGE collection), as well as a way to pay tribute to my mum, who was such a voracious reader..... Reading her collection of books has stirred up a lot of memories, mostly of our shared love of reading. I am forever grateful that she passed on her love of reading to me.

One of these days I’m going to list out my favorite Dick Francis stories and I think that Decider will rank number three on the list. It’s a wonderful mystery and an even more wonderful story of a father and his young sons. Through a complicated series of events, Lee Morris has come to own an eight percent share of a racecourse and that share drags him into the highly complicated politics of the uber rich Stratton family. The Stratton’s are a highly dysfunctional family with dozens of secrets some of which are worth killing over.

But in addition to the classic mystery, you get the story of Lee and his sons and it is both heartwarming and critical to the development of the plot. Add in that Lee is a builder—a restorer of wrecked homes—and you get two score interesting pieces of trivia about the building trade and what it takes to run a successful business like a pub. And of course, there is racetrack lore aplenty as you will always find in a Francis book.

The only thing wrong with this novel is that the mystery gets solved and the book comes to an end.

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I thought I had read all of the Dick Francis books quite a while back, but a friend gave me this one and I think I missed it 20 years or so ago! This time, less to do with the actual racing. The basic story is of an architect turned builder who gets involved in a family that is all about preserving the family name in spite of horrible secrets. Exciting, quick read.

This may be my favorite Dick Francis novel, with an atypical hero whose quiet architectural brilliance and unusually creative parenting (of five boys) sticks in my mind. This is my second read of Decider and I liked it even more this time, admiring the elegant turns of phrase, realism, and depth of character Francis creates. The integration of plot, character, and setting is OH so satisfying.

I’m currently reading all the Dick Francis books in order. Most books were written 25-30 years ago. Some I’ve read before. Decider, in my opinion, isn’t one of his better books. I enjoy the books because of the reference to horses and racing stables. This book hardly mentioned either, which I found very disappointing. However, I still enjoyed the book. Despite being written so long ago, it still seemed relevant to todays world.

Typical Dick Francis book. I haven’t read one of his books in decades, so it was nice to revisit.

I love Dick Francis' characters. They are very philosophical and good-natured, able to survive the most horrible calamities with a sense of humor. The hero of this book is in a rather depressing marriage, but as usual is a very likable guy. Fast-paced and tense, as most of his books are.

In re-reading all of the Dick Francis books in a row, I'm discovering that the hero in every book is basically the same character. If you like that character, it's a good thing.
This book has lots of characters, but Francis is very adept at keeping their stories moving.
I didn't love the resolution of the issues between Lee and Amanda, but other than that, a good read.

Galloping to a great finish again. I am a fan of Dick Francis and his horse racing related mayhem. This is another re-read. breaking out all my Dick Francis for light reading. You'll love the stories, the drama, and the racing.

Architect with many sons gets involved with a family-owned racecourse where disagreements about
its future among the family members result in a lot of meanness, involving the kids with some of the acts of sabotage. I have always liked Dick Francis - this was a good one. I listened on Audible.

This is my favorite of the Dick Francis novels. I fell in love Lee Norris. He is someone I would like to know in real life. The story is intense and low key at the same time. When the protagonist in Dick Francis novel is hurt (and they usually are), they hurt but keep going. Part of the appeal to his novels is this approach to life. Even though he started off writing about jockeys, Dick Francis continued on to write about so many other fields, like in this on where Lee Morris is an architect who inherits some shares in a privately owned racetrack. The dissension among the family/owners put Lee in the middle of things. With sabotage, bombs, and guns, there are some memorable scenes.

Lee Morris is a hands-on builder as well as an architect. He and his wife Amanda married at the age of nineteen and still relatively young, are now the parents of six boys. Lee's mother was once married to Keith Stratton, one of the sons of Lord Stratton, owner of Stratton Park racecourse. It was an abusive marriage and when Lee's mother left, abandoning her daughter Hannah, her father-in-law gave her eight shares in the racecourse which Lee inherited on his mother's death. Lee is not related to the Strattons and has had no dealings with them. But on Lord Stratton's death, a meeting of shareholders is called and he decides to attend. The family resent, even hate him, and they are a squabbling, blackmailing bunch among themselves, all with different intentions as to the future of the racecourse. Lee is drawn in and takes his five older boys to the races. The plot includes a tragic accident, an explosion, fires, attempted shootings, typical action from Dick Francis. I really enjoyed the antics of the young boys.