Not one of my favourite Dick Francis books, though still a good read

My favorite part is the "tatty black"

Read this book if you are intrigued by my headline. I love the early Dick Francis novels the best. One of the things I like about Dick Francis is that murder is not always the mystery.

In which the Young Man must manage Fathers.

My wife likes what she refers to as "factory movies." We used to see those in school as kids. The term as she means it is a general one that applies to any movie or TV show that explains how things are made, or even more generally, takes an inside look at a field of endeavor. That's the main appeal of this book for me. All the inside scoop on thoroughbred horse training and racing was fun to learn. The writing was well done, but the plot really was all too predictable to be ranked high as a mystery or thriller. In fact, there was no mystery at all. Neil, the main character, is beaten by a very bad man who threatens even more harm if his son is not allowed be the lead jockey on the best horse in England. The son is an arrogant little snot ... at first. Then he and we readers are educated on the proper way to train horses and learn the jockeying ropes from the ground up. You can pretty much guess the rest. The ending was rather neat and lazy, but inevitable. I enjoyed the book, but now that I've seen the factory movie, I don't have any desire to read another Dick Francis book.

Comically poor writing. And too many horses.

Two fathers, two sons, both fractured relationships, one more deadly than the other. Horses die, full disclosure, one father is mad with untreated syphilis, the other a badly broken leg that won't heal properly, One son wants to ride a champion horse with no training, the other takes over the stables when his father is ill.

"Bonecrack" is another one of those fun, not very long books Francis was producing during his early-middle period. Much of it is pretty standard, although fun, fare, but it's set apart by a particularly villainous villain and a character of dubious allegiance and morality. Since those who are strictly good or bad are rather boring, the inclusion of Alessandro, spoiled but not completely rotten son of a megalomaniac father, adds spice to what could otherwise be just another good guy vs. bad guy story.

Indeed, Alessandro's story arc and whether he'll turn out to be good or bad is one of the most compelling parts of the book. Neil Griffon, the hero, has had to take over his father's training stable for a few months while his father recovers from a bad accident. Almost immediately he is coerced into taking on Alessandro as an apprentice jockey, and is placed under increasing threats to let Alessandro ride Archangel, the stable's Derby hope. Alessandro is obsessed with riding a Derby winner--but not as obsessed as his father, and Neil and Alessandro create a kind of uneasy positive relationship as the story progresses and Alessandro discovers how to get what he wants through hard work and talent rather than threats and coercion. The final denouement is a horse race with life-or-death consequences, and both characters, Neil and Alessandro, have to reckon with the legacies of their fathers. It's not hard to read Alessandro as, in a way's Neil's dark twin, as both have had overbearing parents attempting to control their lives, and both have to figure out how to get free and carve out their own lives on their own terms. Not the most in-depth of Francis's works, but with some serious soul-searching, not to mention thrilling action sequences.

What is there to say about Dick Francis? As I think about all of his books (yes, this review covers all of his books, and yes I've read them all) I think about a moral ethical hero, steeped in intelligence and goodness embroiled in evil machinations within British horse racing society - either directly or indirectly. The heroes aren't always horse jockies, they can be film producers, or involve heroes engaged in peripheral professions that somehow always touch the horse racing world.

But more than that, Francis's heroes are rational human beings. The choices made are rational choices directed by a firm objective philosophy that belies all of Francis's novels. The dialogue is clear and touched with humor no matter the intensity of evil that the hero faces. The hero's thoughts reveal a vulnerability that is touching, while his actions are always based on doing the right thing to achieve justice.

Causing the reader to deeply care about the characters in a novel is a difficult thing to do. No such worries in a Francis novel. The point of view is first person, you are the main character as you read the story (usually the character of Mr. Douglas). The hero is personable, like able, non-violent but delivering swift justice with his mind rather than through physical means. This is not to say that violence is a stranger to our hero. Some of it staggering and often delivered by what we would think of normal persons living in British society.

You will come to love the world of Steeple Chase racing, you will grow a fondness for horses, stables, trainers and the people who live in that world. You will read the books, devouring one after the other and trust me Dick Francis has a lot of novels (over 40 by my last count).

There are several series woven into the fabric of Francis's work: notably the Sid Halley and Kit Fielding series.

Assessment: Dick Francis is one of my favorite writers. I read his books with a fierce hunger that remains insatiable and I mourn his death.

Wow! When I first started reading this book, I thought it was going to be somewhat boring, but it quickly turned into a favorite read. Story-line of horse racing, extortion, villains, a little romance with humor, and the story of two young men, Neil and Alessandro, with dysfunctional relationships with their fathers. Neil helps Alessandro become independent and confident in himself while mutual respect generates between them.

I really enjoyed this one. Less a mystery than a thriller and with better character development on one of the central characters than you see in Francis’ writing. I wonder what the inspiration was?

Rereading the entire series from the beginning. This is the first one that I really had to skip through some sections, because the character and the violence are just too much in an era of already-very-high-stress! Still: if you've never read it, this is another highly imaginative Francis effort with a great main character. Francis wrote introductions for many of these novels for this edition, and they give interesting insights into what his aims were as he developed the story. He saw this one as a tale of fathers and sons. Apt.

When Neil Griffon takes over his father's racing stables after his father is hospitalise he gets more than he bargained for.
He is abducted late at night and told he must take on Enso Rivera's son, Alessandro and let him race horses at the top level.
But Neil won't be pushed around and his stubbornness not to give into bully boy tactics leads to a game of cat and mouse as he tries to stay one step ahead of Enso and save his father's stables.
A cracking good story but marking it down a point for the graphic animal cruelty.