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.

Mild mannered man beats the baddies

Francis' books are written to a plan: a mild Mannered man beats the baddies and gets the girl. But there is a lot more than that to his books. They are well written for one thing. The plotting and characters are excellent and believable and there is enough soul searching and weaknesses in the characters to keep the reader glued to the fast and furious storyline always with a twist in the tail.

There's really something to be said for good old storytelling. I love this guy's characters. They're not quirky or tortured or mediocre in greater measure than anyone else, and yet they're really compelling. Although his books are peppered with sentences like "I shivered from something other than the cold," I'm simply not bothered by it, because his characters are so great and the plot is so fun. Maybe my having started reading him before I had any training in writing allows me to get along so nicely; anyhow I'm extremely pleased to have holed up with this book for two days, neither wanting to stop nor feeling compelled to force myself to stop. The last time I read a book in two days was probably the last time I read Dick Francis.

I love Dick Francis books. I read most of them during high school and college, and now I'm slowly working my way through them again. I think this is probably where I got my addiction to cool, tough, laconic underdog heroes. I don't know who invented that trope, but Francis sure does it well.

I was surprised by the lack of suspense in this one; I spent the whole book expecting James to be the real culprit, when it was Rob Finn's suspect all along. It's only DF's second novel, so maybe that explains the lack of twist, but it had most of the usual enjoyable characteristics.

Always enjoy learning about horseracing and its jockeys. Good characters and a fine plot.

This is another recommendation from Nancy Pearl's "Book Lust". She really loved it. I...thought it was OK.

Short plot synopsis: Rob Finn, the main character, is a steeplechase jockey in 1960s England. He comes from a family of musicians, and is the only one without musical talent. However, he's very good at riding horses, and is rapidly becoming successful in his career. However, jockeys around him are falling on hard times. At the beginning of the book, one of his fellow-riders commits suicide as he's walking to the track; others hit hard times on the racecourse and suffer financially for it. While Rob is wildly successful at first, he too runs into difficulties, as the horses he rides suddenly become unusually lethargic, and he's accused of a lack of courage, or "nerve" (hence the title). Gradually Rob discovers that his problems, as well as the problems of the other riders, are all the work of a malevolent TV host who hates successful jockeys and wants to bring them down.

Dick Francis writes well, especially for the thriller/mystery genre. He's good at creating believable characters, and at getting readers to empathize with them. Rob Finn is completely believable, as are the other jockeys he works with, and the trainers, etc. that he meets in the course of his work. The horse racing scenes are well-done, and there's a lot of tension when Rob is kidnapped and left, essentially, to die in a horse stall about 2/3 of the way though the book. There's a lot to like about "Nerve", overall.

However, I thought the main plot (evil TV host tries to undermine successful jockeys) was a little hard to swallow. I know it's a mystery, and stuff like that happens in this kind of book, but I think the realism of the rest of the book makes the over-the-top, wicked villain seem more implausible. And the reveal at the end, where the villain reveals all his plans to the conquering hero, was too pat, and was unsatisfying. Again, I think the actions of the TV host were harder to swallow because of Francis's success in depicting a normal, banal world, which made those actions seem more outlandish and unreal in comparison.

Also, there was a subplot about Rob's love for his first cousin that I found a little unpleasant. Maybe it's conditioning, but I find the idea of first cousins marrying and having sex to be off-putting. That may be purely personal taste, but it detracted from my enjoyment of reading the book, particularly because there wasn't any reason for Rob's love interest to be a relation; Francis could have made her someone completely unrelated without changing the character that much--her family connection to Rob isn't really all that important to the plot, and could have been removed altogether without making much of a difference to the story as a whole.

All in all, a well-executed mystery that I found enjoyable but not terribly memorable. I think 3 stars is about right.

Another great English horse racing novel from Dick Francis. All the way from the great first lines to the very last sentence this book gripped my interest. So far this is just the second in the series I have read in his catalog but shit if his second book is this good than how are the rest of his books?! Plus to be an English horse racer than a successful novelist is pretty damn cool....

Two things Dick Francis understands better than anyone is the pain of injuries and the raw courage it takes to ride a horse jumping at breakneck speeds. In this novel, he also proves he understands cowardice and the insidious depths to which the coward will plunge in order to get the better of people more courageous than he.

Jockeys are engaged in a reckless and dangerous trade. They risk the integrity of their bodies and even their lives every time they get on a horse. In this novel, Francis shows how precarious their careers really are and how vulnerable the jockeys are to rumor and inuendo when these two tools are wielded by an intelligent bad actor.

I’ve read just about all of Dick Francis’ novels and I thought this one was one of the best at actually getting into the life of a jockey and the world of English racing.

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My fave. Wow, and there's immense irony involved.

Dick Francis was well-known and well-loved for his taut, tightly-plotted mysteries, most of them set in or around the world of horse-racing. Nerve has always been one of my favorites.

See the rest of my Goodreads review of the paperback edition here.

Another consistently good read by Dick Francis. The ‘same’ character again, but I don’t find this a problem. I do get annoyed when his characters won’t go to the police though and the main character took too long to think the horses might have been doped.