To be honest, I am only sorry I read #2 first in this series. These are the seeds planted in #1 to grow in monstrous size in #2. The life of a jockey, the care and maintenance of a thoroughbred, threaded through a mystery and revelation of an abusive manipulated family is the overview of the book. Kit Fielding is the protagonist pulling together facts and actions of the various people to culminate in an interesting conclusion. Bringing to light quite a few circumstances was quite a fete by the jockey as well as writing about quite a number of characters all needing to be moved about in this plot. A very fun light hearted tale that was hard to put down once a few pages were read.

#1 in the series with Kit Fielding, Francis introduces a great new hero. He is a seasoned English jockey who has an interesting ability to communicate with the horses he rides as well as with certain humans he cares about. In addition to being able to read his mounts and win, he’s brave and fearless, talented, lucky, coordinated, and fit… a gentleman, on and off the course. His excellent moral compass and innate detective skills place him in just the right place at the right time.

One of Dick Francis's books where horse-racing is the scenery, the setting of the plot but not the subject of the plot. While Kit Fielding is likable as the protagonist of this novel, it is hard to believe that a jockey as focused as he is on horse-racing could also best powerful, manipulative business men and rough and tumble criminals. It would be easy to dismiss this story as unbelievable and not worth wasting your time on except that Dick Francis's writing skill keeps you reading it. Plot flows well. Some of the characters are one-dimensional but most have some depth to them.

3.5 stars

Another grand adventure in the horse racing world. This Dick Francis volume is subtitled Kit Fielding #1. I need to break out my list and check off what I have re-read and reviewed. Not to give anything away but Christmas and Holly are twins with a telepathic bond. Born on Christmas and orphaned soon after, they are raised by their grandfather. There is a long-standing rivalry between two racing families and Holly crosses the line when she marries the enemy Bobby Allardeck. You'll need to pick up a copy to get the rest of the tale.

Perhaps I should rate all Francis books a five or this one a four—they are all just about equally winning and thrilling, great pieces of writing, impossible to put down. Maybe I'm partial to this one because I spent so much of my life in newspapers, and this captures much of what I've imagined the corrupt world of British journalism can be like (the U.S. version is somewhat different, tho I don't have quite the details for a good novel...). Even with no newsprint anticipated, I'm really looking forward to the second Kit Fielding story. Great characters all.

Another Dick Francis mystery, and another Dick Francis hero. Here, our hero is a steeplechase jockey who figures out a crime against his sister and her husband, negotiating with base criminal henchman and the wealthy and connected people that employ them. As is usual, the hero faces some major physical inducements to stop his involvement, but unlike most of Francis’ heroes this stopped short of torture and/or a necessary hospital stay. Well, except for stiches. Also unlike other Francis books that I’ve read, there seems to be little in the way of a heavily researched side topic in the mystery. The closest we get to coming afield of horse racing is the description of a telephone bug, circa 1970s. Despite missing these hallmarks, I found that I enjoyed the story. There was even a touch of romance here. I am not surprised that Fielding makes his way to an additional Francis story, as he was the most likeable of the ones I’ve read so far. I read the follow on, “Bolt”, a while ago and didn’t rate it highly. I suspect had I read them in order I’d have rated “Bolt” a bit higher.

I really enjoyed this book. A good story and no torture (which sometimes takes away from the enjoyment of a Dick Francis book).

Although the world of horse racing and jockeys is completely foreign to me, it always feels like Francis is giving you a glimpse into it. His descriptions are vivid and his characters are well developed.

A good read.

Typical Dick Francis protagonist. Kit Fielding is a steeplechase jockey. He was raised by his ornery grandfather after his parents died suddenly. One difference- he has a twin sister to whom he is very close. In their childhood, they had a kind of telepathy, able to communicate without words. My sister and I had this when we were younger. We never spoke full sentences. Did you? Yes. Should I? Is that? We’d show up places wearing basically the same outfit. We both dyed our hair red on a whim the same day without ever talking about it. When we played Pictionary, people accused us of cheating. Just as one of us started to draw, the other would blurt out the correct answer when there was barely a squiggle on the paper. We weren’t allowed to be partners. As we got older, this went away. Same for Kit and his sister Holly.

There has been a generations long time feud between Kit’s family and another horse racing family. Complicating things, Holly has married one of the enemy. Although he tries, Kit cannot let go of his ingrained hate of the family, and if Holly’s husband Bobby. Bobby feels the same about Kit. They grew up next door to one another and fought throughout their childhood.

Now, Holly’s husband is in trouble and Holly knows (as we do) the only one who can help is Kit. He’s cool under duress, thinks of things others haven’t considered, and can tolerate a lot of pain and discomfort, due
to his spills from horses.

I complained about the “romance” in the last Dick Francis book I read, The Danger. Aside from one awkward moment, this romance story was sweetly told. Looks like I need to track down the other two Kit Fielding books.

6/30/23 No matter how many times I reread Dick Francis, I’m always holding my breath (along with the spectators at the race course) every time he describes what it’s like to race around a track, hoping all the variables are in your favour.* Forget the rest of the plot- that’s suspense!

* British spelling as due

Since Goodreads reading goals wait for no man nor woman either, not even on Christmas, I must complete more reviews if I am to meet my target. Naturally for today I decided to review the books about Christmas "Kit" Fielding and his twin sister Holly, born on Christmas Day.

The mid-to-late-80s, when Francis wrote the two Kit Fielding books, were when he was experimenting with the family novel, producing gems such as "Hot Money" and "Longshot," about internal family dynamics and tensions. "Break In" is also a family novel of sorts, although it's as much about feuds between families as it is feuds within families. The Fieldings have maintained a centuries-long feud with neighboring horse family the Allardyces, until Holly, whose heroine has always been Juliet, marries Bobby Allardyce. Unfortunately, Bobby's father Maynard isn't really a peace-and-goodwill kind of person, and Kit finds himself caught in the middle of all kinds of scheming.

"Break In" is marvelously constructed, with Kit's fights against the bad guys juxtaposed with his races (he's a professional jockey) and the growing attraction between him and the niece of his chief owner. All kinds of class issues, frequently a topic in Francis's novels, come up, as Kit negotiates the slightly nebulous class space he occupies--he's from an old and well-known but not rich family, and as a jockey he's the "help," but not in the same category as actual servants. So is it appropriate for him to be courting Mademoiselle de Brescou or not? How should the upper classes relate to him?

The action sequences are, as always, superbly done, although perhaps the best moment is not the action per se but when Kit is recovering from being tasered and suddenly feels life force flooding back into him, which is described with the realism of someone who knows what that's like.

Although "Break In" is, like all of Francis's novels, grounded in realism and sharply drawn realist details, it also strays into slightly supernatural territory, as Kit and Holly have an almost, or even actually, telepathic ability to communicate, something that plays a key role in the plot. The slight "supernatural" element is, like everything else, portrayed with a naturalism that makes it completely believable, and only adds to the story. Not necessarily one of Francis's most hard-hitting novels, but one of his most appealing, making for excellent holiday reading.

What you would expect from a Dick Francis novel centered around racing. The story moved along very quickly and in took unexpected turns. The characters were well developed as well as the descriptions around the races and racing horses in general. The story came to a satisfying conclusion.

Another winner for Francis

Another treasure from Dick Francis. Twists and turns, threats, blackmail, kidnapping, manipulating, resolution, and finally love. Dick Francis always comes through with a winner.