I wouldn't have thought to combine diplomats and veterinarians, but leave it to Dick Francis to make it all work out.

As usual we have a do-gooder hero in the wrong place at the wrong time, with just enough time on his hands to become embroiled in a complicated story about too many horses dying on the operating table (or thereabouts) and one poor vet who's being blamed with no discernible reason why.

I like the various twists and turns of a Dick Francis story. This one became decidedly complex, pulling in the previous generation and showing the reader just how twisted the children of a callous generation can become.

I must be getting jaded with human nature. My good friend loves mysteries because they are almost always solved and almost always there is accountability (which is something that seems to be missing in the 2020s). But I am tired of evil, self-absorbed, greedy old men. This story was replete with them murdering innocent horses and a couple of not-so-innocent humans, but in a gruesome manner. Nowadays I am looking for a page-turning thriller to take my mind off of our currently divisive culture...or even better, an uplifting story that does not bore me to tears. I do not recommend this book.

EXCELLENT AS ALWAYS!!
I wish I could marry a guy like the Dick Francis character. They never could find an actor to portray him, they needed someone who conveyed kindness, intelligence, capability and strength. Someone to take care of you. Someone you could depend on. This had to be apparent in his face, because these characters aren't big chatterboxes.
This was a good story and a good mystery, and I learned a lot about the large animal vet practice. This might have been the book that I learned about fugu from. I have read it at least two times before.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND! Any Dick Francis.

If you know my reading habits at all, you know that I read Dick Francis novels. Many of them I read as they came out in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. This year, so far, beginning in March, I've read Bonecrack, Smokescreen, In the Frame, Risk, The Danger, Forfeit, Rat Race, High Stakes, Trial Run, Whip Hand, Twice Shy, Break In, Reflex, Bolt, Hot Money, The Edge, and Comeback. That's seventeen mystery novels by the late, great Dick Francis, who was, many years ago, the Queen Mother's jockey.

Addictive? Certainly not, but very enjoyable and worth reading and re-reading. Mostly, I find, I re-read them after and interval of fifteen or twenty years, which is long enough for the details to seem fresh, even if the general scene is a familiar one.

Comeback, my seventeenth, and probably last, Dick Francis novel of 2023, is one of the good ones. The lead character, Peter Darwin, is a British Foreign Service officer, back in England for the first time in twenty years or so. Due to a nice sort of "meet cute" routine in Miami, he ends up in Cheltenham looking after an older couple who need looking after. Through them, he meets their daughter Belinda and Belinda's fiancé, Ken McClure. Ken is a veterinarian, Belinda a veterinary nurse, and horses have started dying of unknown causes in their hospital.

The mystery here is layered and intricate. As with many good mysteries, the source of the problem is years in the past. Thus, the hiatus in Peter's knowledge of the neighborhood where he lived as a boy is less important than the memories he has of the players. We are introduced to a community of horse people, long-time acquaintances, at various times business associates, lovers, enemies, and partners in crime. Peter, in his nice, unassuming way, helps Ken to deal with the problems of the practice, and finds himself more and more involved in the mysteries.

Excellent entertainment. A fine writer at the height of his powers.

Vintage Dick Francis: Horses, a somewhat aloof and alienated hero who reveals his warm side in flashes, a couple of lively ladies, and an ending which satisfies. There are a couple of loose ends and incongruities which are bothersome, but when one has written thirty novels, the loyal reader is apt to forgive a few lapses.

I really enjoyed this one. Peter Darwin in a diplomat recently posted back home to England after several years in Japan. He makes the acquaintance of some fellow Brits who are mugged.They are both pretty shaken and are glad for his help when they make it to England. But the troubles are only beginning. Darwin is soon involved in sorting out some malicious mischief at a vet's surgery. I liked this one a lot.

I use Dick Francis books as a break between more serious reads, but really, I should be paying more attention. He's a master of plot and pacing.

Another winner from Mr. Francis. Peter Darwin is a British diplomat who is accompanying recent friends, Vicki and Greg, to their daughter's wedding. Belinda is marrying Ken, a horse surgeon, at the veterinary practice where they both work. But Ken's reputation is going down the tubes as more and more horses start dying. Thus begins a complicated investigation into what and who is killing the horses. But complicating matters is the fire that all but destroys the vet clinic, burning all of their files and records. Slowly, Peter and Ken start rebuilding the paper trail documenting the horses deaths and they realize that there must be an insurance scam going on. Several older trainers seem to be involved and they are all the ones who invested in a big project that went belly-up so this scheme is to help them recoup their losses as they approach retirement. As they collect invoices from drug companies in order to replenish their supplies that were ruined in the fire, Ken realizes that large amounts of poisons were being ordered, which is the smoking gun that they were looking for. Now they just have to figure out who in the practice was in cahoots with the old trainers. It was Kerry, the main partner in the practice. His plan was to get his money and leave town before anyone caught on but Peter ruined his plans. Of course, it wouldn't be a Francis book without the obligatory romance thrown in but I was happy to see the number of fight scenes and overall violence toned down a bit in this one compared to the last one that I read.

Did not finish. Horse serial killer.

Always a good read

This one I remember being impressed with for all the veterinary information, the description of the hospital location, as much as the working out of the who done it. Thoroughly absorbing despite the unavoidable out-of-datedness of its forensics.

Returning to England with the Foreign Service, Peter gets entangled with a horse vet and his threatened reputation. Determined to clear the slate for his new friend, Peter uncovers memories of his childhood and chilling details of dying horses on the operating table.
Exciting from the first chapter, I enjoyed the story from Miami to Cheltenham. The quiet romance was sweet and full of potential. The denouement was nail biting.