My favorite Francis, so far, is Slayride but I enjoyed this one too. You can use Google Book Preview to read the first 50 pages or so to get a feel for Francis' writing but I enjoy his mysteries. In this British novel, TV meteorologist Perry Stuart chases a hurricane but finds himself in worse danger with men. Most, if not all, Francis' novels have a racehorse connection pulling on his own past as a jockey. This one widens the net more than most of Francis' mysteries that are intricate but on a smaller scale. This doesn't get the best reviews from his readers as one of his best but it was an enjoyable listen.

Not my favorite Dick Francis story. Probably because it’s a long way from the racing world. Instead, it’s about a BBC weatherman who goes chasing after hurricanes. The plot is ridiculous, the only animals are a proxy lot of cows, and the odds of racing off to fly through a Cat 5 hurricane and come out unscathed are predictably low. But that isn’t really why we read Dick Francis novels. It’s because he creates main characters that may appear modest, ordinary, likable, yet invariably turn out to be heroic material. In this case, a meteorologist uncovers a group trading in nuclear materials at horse racetracks after he washes up on an abandoned Caribbean island where a list of potential international buyers has been left behind. Of course, he’s smart enough to crack the safe and decipher enough of the coded list to involve the “authorities” when he gets back to England. I liked the disabled grandmother he dotes on who raised him to be brave and self-reliant. The romance with the nurse Jett seemed a bit contrived, but the friendship with his fellow hurricane hunter and colleague Kris was complex enough to make up for the less subtle relationships that drive the story.

This has been one of my least favorite books from Dick Francis. I'm not big into horse racing, but I have come to enjoy this part of his books. However, this book had very little racing, and the mystery aspect of it seemed a bit disjointed and was often confusing.

I love most Dick Francis books, but not this one. While most of his books center around horse racing, this one just has it mentioned as an aside, and maybe this is where the book goes wrong. There never seemed to be a single plot, or maybe the plot got diverted on too many tangents. I don't know. A lot was going on in the book, and most of it hardly seemed connected. This book's main character was a meteorologist, and it was well researched, but maybe too well, because it bogged down in places, and a lot of loose threads. Not my favorite.

Fly into the eye of a hurricane with a suicidal pilot who doesn't even want to use maps.

What could possibly go wrong?

I think this one is in the category of "protagonist does stupid things to make the plot work."

That both guys survive the ditching at sea in the middle of the hurricane, highly improbable.

As a BBC meteorologist the story's protagonist surely could have arranged such a flight with the U.S.'s professional services, in a robust plane flow by pros rather than a Cessna flown by a rank amateur. (Incidentally it looks as if this is the rank amateur's first flight in a twin engine plane, a big no-no given the tricky nature of such vehicles.)

The story does not long delay in taking a James Bondian twist, something that might have seemed up-to-date at the time but that in retrospect also seems just dumb.

Sure, it's a thriller, but how far from credibility can Dick Francis reasonably take us?

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.

I like Dick Francis’ writing, but feel that this wasn’t one of his best efforts. I was looking for a good read to distract me from a rather boring book club book, so I picked this up. As usual I liked Francis’ main character, Perry Stuart, a PhD in physics and TV meteorologist on BBC, and handsome to boot. No horses to speak of in this book, maybe Francis had run out of horse-related plots? Hope not, because he definitely can create a better story in that world, than In hurricanes and meteorology. Still, a good read, just not up to his usual excellence.

Published 20 years ago, which is about how long it's been since I last read a Dick Francis novel. Still a good time - horse racing involved at some level, the good guy is very nice and always smart, always gets beaten badly by the bad guy who is very bad, but a sunny outcome (and a girl) come through in the end. Worth a revisit.

Has elements of international intrigue along with the usual Francis elements of horse racing. Not a nail biter, but a good read. It was interesting to see how the main character would deduce what was really going on as the story progressed. I learned a lot about hurricanes by reading this book!

It is unimaginable to me that a writer can pen this many books and come up with fresh and intriguing plots that are seemingly never-ending. This is another fantastic Dick Francis work, and I'll keep reading them until I'm finished with the last one.

More beach reading.

The hero this time is a meteorologist, so there is plenty of info on tropical depressions and barometer readings. The hurricane sequence is well done, but there were too many "players" in the multiple bad guys to really create that palpable sense of menace that Francis' best mysteries create.

Really, I do think this one suffered a bit from an overambitious scope. It didn't work all that well as a minor transformation into espionage novel. At least the love interest in this one is less annoying than the usual Francis hero's inamorata.

I found myself worrying about the fate of a herd of cows that are central to the plot, and have to tip my hat to Francis, as of course he understood that the animals' welfare would need to be successfully resolved to reassure the animal lovers among his readers. Nice touch. (But I must say some of the cows had more individuality for me than some of the confusing array of minor characters!)

I didn't think this novel was one of the author's better novels. Horse racing is only tangentially important to the story.

The protagonist, Perry Stuart, is a thirty-something BBC weatherman with a physics degree. His fellow weatherman, Kris, is an amateur pilot who has always dreamed of flying through a hurricane. Perry goes along for the ride through Hurricane Odin near the Cayman Islands and nearly dies.