This was pretty great, and it was narrated by the great Ralph Cosham! Published in 1965, it's unapologetically insensitive - and that's about the only negative thing I can say about it.

Sid Halley was a champion horse jockey until a tragic accident left him with a severely disfigured left hand. Unable to compete any longer, Sid starts taking minor surveillance jobs with a friend's investigation agency. After a few years of halfhearted work, one of his targets shoots him in the gut. The experience finally puts a fire in his belly (ha!) Not only is he on a permanent liquid diet (he prefers brandy), but the unfairness of it all drives Sid to hunt down the man who shot him. That investigation becomes entangled with unusual goings-on at one of his favorite horse tracks.

There were a few delightfully unexpected developments in this short novel. First, his father-in-law's behavior at an invited weekend at his estate came out of nowhere. For another thing, the Crays: what a deliciously nasty couple they are! Finally, I was not expecting the kind of retaliation delivered when the bad guys couldn't find a series of photo negatives - wow!

Maybe I underestimate older mysteries, but this book was a real gem. I look forward to reading others in Dick Francis' Sid Halley series.

Sid Halley used to be a jockey, one of the greats. He used to be alive.

Now he merely drifts in a job at that he thinks was given to him out of pity; pity for a cripple with a deformed and useless hand. Then a two-bit crook takes a pot shot at Halley who winds up, once again, in a hospital. On leave, visiting with the father of his ex-wife, Halley is drawn into a complex investigation of financial fraud, crooked real estate deals and race track politics. Along the way he will learn to confront his debility and rediscover the will to live.

There are moments of pure terror, terrific characters and a clever, twisty plot, but what makes this one is a five star is how Francis dissects the instinctive human reaction to disability, to physical ugliness--and to being disabled--with unflinching candor and a sensitivity that never becomes maudlin or manipulative. Highly recommended even for those who rarely read adventure or detective stories.

This might be my all-time favorite Dick Francis and Sid Halley is his most inspiring hero. Fortunately, there are three more in the series: Whip Hand, Come to Grief and Under Orders, all excellent.

Content rating PG for violence, and two particularly sadistic and twisted villains.

Sid Halley was a successful and famous steeplechase jockey until his left wrist was almost severed by a sharp horseshoe during a fall. After recovery, he's offered a consultant job in the Racing Division at Hunt Radnor Associates, an investigation agency. After two years on the job, he'd learned a lot about the detecting business, but had never got involved in a case. Filling in for an associate on night, he gets shot in the belly by a suspect. Then follows a long and painful stay in the hospital. His father-in-law Charles comes to visit and asks him to come to his country home to convalesce, which Sid agrees to do. Charles also mentions he'll have house guests one weekend and that one of them is a greedy land grabber with his eyes on a rundown race course called Seabury. As it is one of Sid's favourite courses, he does not want to see it closed and developed into subdivisions. With his boss' agreement, he starts an investigation of his own.

This was a short book, but was a real page turner. I look forward to the next in the series.

Review to follow

This was my first Dick Francis book. I have been avoiding them for a long time - even though my mother was a keen advocate. In browsing the shelves of Foul Play last winter, my favorite mystery bookshop in Columbus, Ohio, I found Odds Against. Since it is the first in the Sid Halley series, I decided to get my feet wet. I am glad I did.

My long avoidance of Dick Francis was my belief that the backdrop of horse racing would be a detractor for me, even though I was born in blue grass country. There was some jargon in this book that I didn't understand, but the characters and their relationships are what won me over. Sid Halley has experienced a good amount of misfortune in his life, and the book opens at such a time - he has just been shot.

His recovery is slow, but brings with it significant life changes, one of which is his first case.

I am eager to read about the next one.

I've reread this one countless times. And I never tire of it. The characters and plotting completely satisfy every time.

#1 in the Sid Halley series.

Sid Halley series - It's amazing what bodily injury can do for a man. A fall from a racehorse left brilliant jockey Sid Halley dangerously depressed, with a wrecked hand and the need for a new career. It was a bullet wound that helped him find one. Although he'd been with a detective agency since his racing accident, it isn't until some two-bit hoodlum drills a slug into his side that he is sent out on a case of his own. That is where he meets Zanna Martin, a woman who just might make life worth living again. But it is an even-money bet that he will be killed before she has the chance.

Plenty of action when Sid Halley, former jockey, takes on his first assignment as an investigator for Hunt Radnor. Another great novel from Dick Francis.

This book is well narrated by Tony Britton. I'm disappointed, though, that Britton doesn't do a lower-class accent for Sid. Britton proved that he could carry an Australian accent throughout an entire book in For Kicks, and Sid is a character from the lower classes, so it would be nice to have that accent here. Perhaps I'm spoiled by the lovely Welsh accent of the actor who played Sid in the mini-series based on this character (Mike Gwilym).

This is an old-fashioned delight: a taut, well-plotted novel that's grounded in competence, suspense, and nitty-gritty professional details. While also being laid-back and pleasant. This was my first Francis, but it definitely won't be my last.

Sid Halley used to be a jockey until his hand was badly mangled in a fall--Francis alludes to what a sharp horseshoe and a horse's full weight can do to you, and it's not pretty--and since then, he's been drifting through life without fully participating it. He's wound up as a consultant in a large PI firm that frequently deals with racetrack security and related matters, but he basically goes through the building like a ghost. Until, that is, the opening of the novel, where a case has gotten him gut-shot. This time, his recovery will be a little more eventful and a little more engaging.

His father-in-law--he's separated from his wife, but maintains an excellent, genuinely warm relationship with her father--invites him to do some of his recuperation at his country house, where it turns out he has a plan to give Sid something to do in his recovery. Seabury, a fading racecourse, might not be fading so naturally. Rather, it might be being sabotaged repeatedly so that it will lose business and shareholders will be inclined to sell, leaving one particularly nasty creature named Kraye to buy up all the shares and then turn the land over to developers. And so Sid finds himself once again with a purpose, ferreting out the scheme and the people behind it and at least providing Seabury with a chance to save itself.

Come on, that's fun. And Sid is eminently likable--matter-of-fact about his shortness, annoyed by his inability to eat anything but beef broth while his stomach is healing, self-conscious about his hand, smart, capable, and slowly putting his life back together. I actually kind of do think they don't make these like they used to, so if you like, say, old school Robert Parker or John D. MacDonald and would also like them if they were British, a little more mild-mannered, and set around a bunch of horses, you will like this.

The very first Sid Halley novel, and one of Dick Francis’ best.

Sid Halley, the former jockey with the disfigured, nearly useless hand, a failed marriage, and a job as a private investigator. He’s not really required to do any work, and he does precious little. Until his ex-father in law pushes him out of depression and into action.

Action, suspense, insight into both horse racing and human nature. Evil villains, sadistic violence, a few deft twists. All in all a thumping good read.

Halley would be featured in four novels by Francis, and a fifth by Francis’ son Felix.

Odds Against would earn Francis his first Edgar Award nomination for best novel. The next Halley novel, Whip Hand, would earn Francis the Edgar and the CWA Gold Dagger.

Look for the Pocket paperback editions with the cover art, usually depicting a scene of violence from the novel, divided up into cubes with a couple missing; like missing pieces of a puzzle. Those are my favorites, and give the reader a great sense of the action.

Dick Francis is the featured author this month for the Cozy mysteries group here at Goodreads. You can see the discussion here. I haven't read too many of his stories before, so I thought I'd check out this book.

I like his writing and his characters are engaging. However, in every story I've read by him, I find the plot riddled with graphic violence and crime. I prefer my mysteries truly cozy, and I wouldn't really consider his books all that cozy. Still, I read this book quickly and I was truly enthralled by the overall plot. I like Sid Halley, and despite the violence and gore, I would be willing to read the other books in that series.

new words: cascara, hessian, rhyolite, chemmy, plimsollshod, spiv, collywobbles, calorifier, inveigled