Longshot by dick francis

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

My aunt has given me a few of these novels as Dick Francis is her favorite author. I put off giving them a try for quite some time. They're written by an older white male with white male protagonists, this one the year I was born making it not old enough to be a classic, not current enough to resonate with me (so I thought) and set in a world I have little interest in (horse racing). BUT the old man was British, they're mysteries, they were free, and someone I trust suggested them. I gave Dick a chance. I devoured Longshot. I must say however that I left the novel feeling a little bit miffed with our 'hero'. I value truth and knowledge above all it seems.

**Note: I do want to mention that this book does quite a bit of blaming the victim/slut shaming/whatever you want to call it; at first our protagonist seemed to be above that but he fails us in the end. If you are a person with good ethics, you will be appalled more than once. I considered taking an extra star away for this, but I tend to rate based on enjoyment and I did enjoy this and wasn't pissed enough to stop reading. Shame on me, perhaps. There were also a few jokey lines about feminism but made in such a way that I wasn't sure whether to be offended or not.

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cspiteri

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

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.

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Kaiomaar

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Writer John Kendall has always specialized in writing non-fiction survival guides, teaching people how to survive in the most rugged and unforgiving circumstances. Now, he has finally written a novel and his agent has sold it to a publisher. However, it will still be months before the book is actually released and begins to earn royalties (assuming it ever does). In the meantime, even living very frugally, Kendall has gone through the advance for the book and is in desperate need of money.

His agent hooks him up with a wealthy horse trainer, Tremayne Vickers, who would like to hire Kendall to write his biography. Kendall agrees to take the job, especially since it includes lodging in Vickers' large home while Kendall interviews Vickers and begins writing the book.

Kendall arrives at the Vickers farm to find a large and very interesting family living in or near Vickers' home. Most all of them are involved in the racing world in one way or another and very quickly Kendall is introduced to it as well. Some of the family members are very welcoming and nice; a couple of them are jerks, and the family has suffered a recent blow when one of the family members has been convicted of manslaughter. He somehow accidentally strangled a young woman at a party, but apparently in this jurisdiction, the crime is not enough to merit a term in prison because the guy is still footloose and fancy free and generally being a pain in the butt, especially to Kendall.

It soon turns out that another young woman associated with the farm--a trainer--has also been strangled to death and then buried in the woods nearby. Once her remains are discovered, the police will be looking closely at the Vickers family to see if there is a link between the two crimes. Inevitably, poor John Kendall will get caught up in the mess and will almost certainly need all of those survival skills he's been writing about if he's going to survive.

Kendall is a typical Dick Francis hero--bright, resilient, strong, pleasant, and a man that others almost always underestimate. This book is a bit unusual in that, unlike virtually all other Dick Francis novels, the hero has no love interest. There are a number of attractive women about, but they are all taken and so there is no one to whom Kendall might turn.

The book is fine and it's a quick read. I'm giving it three stars rather than four because it falls short of most other Francis novels in the quality of the villain. There clearly is a villain lurking here, but he's not nearly as mean, nasty, dangerous, degenerate, or threatening as most of the others that Francis has created, and the book suffers a bit as a result.

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sofie24

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

remember reading a lot of Dick Francis mysteries when I was younger and lived in the states. I've always loved horses and the horse aspect of his books is what interested me then. I forget where I picked this one up. I found it on the back of the shelf one day digging for more to reread.

A well-known race horse trainer (steeplechase mostly) wants a ghostwriter for his memoirs. He expects the author to come live with him for a month or so to do the research and interviews.

When a starving author is kicked out of his attic apartment because of frozen pipes, he begs the agent to get him the job with horse trainer. The agent isn't happy about the idea, but does the job.

The author suddenly finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation.

Longshot was published by Michael Joseph Ltd (a UK division of Penguin)and has a 1990 copyright.

This was filled with excitement and action. The equine aspect was interesting but not dominant.

Find the rest of my evaluation at http://balancingboard.blogspot.com/20...

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simalacrum

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

OK, I'm officially going through the equivalent of mind-numbing TV; enjoyable, quick and instantly forgettable plot-driven books. My mind lately has been like fizz and all I want is to read something easy and diverting so I'm raiding the children's library I run eg reading through a box set of Dick Francis that my mother also likes and gave me - I've probably read them already a few years ago, but as I said they're not memorable (and now the technology described is *really* out of date!). I'm also reading my husband's crime/mystery type books - you know, fun, fast paced, all action, describing the minutiae of the protagonist's life ie that they got up and had a shower and exactly what they ate for breakfast and that they turned the key in the ignition to start up their XXX car etc etc. So apologies if I'm dumbing down the literary level here but hey I'm still reading! (...just not the medical journals I'm supposed to be reading).

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NikyNeko

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

Turns out this one really holds up. Barring a couple of points where Francis brings out the character clichés this is a fresh-feeling story. Despite being written in 1990 it doesn't lean on any technology and were it not for the narrator's brief mention of his computer early on and the appearance of a carphone you'd probably have figured he wrote it back in the 60s.

I had recalled the very specific nature of the moment all Francis readers know: the gruelling bit where our hero has to dig deep inside himself for those reserves of strength to pull him through some sort near death moment.

But I couldn't recall who the villain was. Often Francis's bad guys are easy to pick out, and that rarely impacts the story, but here he really had me, and I'd read it before! (Albeit probably 30 years ago.)

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