Re-read much Francis. Scary when warped sadistic couple attack his already deformed hand. I've never even been to a horse race, but Francis has a knack - Dick, not son. I'm planning to work my way up (down?) series (again).

Sid Halley narrates rough recuperation. Fall as jockey deformed left hand, so he has "worked" for two years, hanging around cramped PI firm for Hunt Radnor 71 p 225. His former father-in-law Admiral Charles Roland believes sadistic Howard Kraye ~50 "rotten underneath" p 33 sabotages racecourses, now Seabury, to take them over cheap, sell to developers.

With tiny camera, Sid photographs Kraye's private papers on a country weekend at Oxfordshire where host Charles pretends to criticize Sid. Kraye "dangerous big-time crook" p 56 and wife Doria share deviant love of torture, pain, hurt Sid's hand.

Kraye also steals most rare expensive quartz sample borrowed just to get guests. Luckily Sid advised Charles to get insurance. Couldn't they report theft later and get rock back?

Violence suddenly escalates. Thug Fred bombs Sid's home, office, heads to torture Charles. In late surprise, Leo on list of payments photoed is "L.E.O." p 185 stamped on binocs borrowed from Seabury Clerk of the Course Captain Oxon. Even after suicide's unsent letter by Clerk of Course "Brinton of Dunstable" p 130, last lost racetrack, Sid and I don't suspect Oxon.

Heir "Brinton of Reading" p 130 memorizes letter, tries to blackmail Kraye, gives up evidence after threats by Fred, writes out copy for Sid. Fred gave weasel gun that shot Sid is in hospital at start of book. In test race around track, horse and Sid fall when mirror in suburban backyard tree flashes their eyes blind "unable to see" p 159. Sid gets snaps of Fred attacking buddy Chico to identify criminal.

Oxon drugs guards, even stable lads, "fast asleep" p 183 with free beer. At night alone, villains chase Sid around deserted Seabury building. Chico Barnes waits by phone at boss Hunt's home.

In silence, "soft single cough" p 194 draws Sid to tap, leaking, scalding hot. Boiler is set to blow in three hours. Actually less. Oxon miscalculated.  

Sid removes rodent by tail plugging boiler, adds water to simulate overflow, but Doria sees not enough. Krayes trap Sid and destroy his hand to find location of paper. Sid sends Oxon to partner Chico for judo demo. Aha! Had to allow some torture to make answer convincing.

Sid's accountant finds crucial numbers, five different bank accounts, probably hidden from taxes, England's Inland Revenue. Sid decides to trade sheet of paper for Kraye's shares in Seabury. I'd do reverse, force Kraye bankrupt over taxes, then buy Seabury cheap.

In side-plot, nasty lawyer Ellis Bolt has secretary Zanna Martin "late thirties" p 105. Accident from "rocket" p 107 firecracker at 16 makes her "shy lonely spinster" p 105. She agrees to turn desk around toward door so clients see her badly disfigured face, false eye, if Sid keeps useless left hand out of his pocket. She kicks him out before dinner when he admits his real identity.  

Since she's innocent, she should apologize for tantrum. She helps Sid with info, accidentally stores file Kraye seeks. With new confidence, haircut, job, she is "not needing me anymore" p 234.

"Christ, I thought. The boiler" p 194. I like to read tough guy who does not have to curse. Important moment then stands out. I almost quit xx http atrocity sequel .

Typo:
p 115 "fond them on a map" is found
p 167 "old geyser with snuffles mucking about with the boiler" is geezer

One of his best, start to finish.

This is a second read. Maybe a third? Anyway, jumped on it to cleanse my palate of a distasteful experience from my last book. Francis is so straightforward.

This book introduces Sid Halley who, if memory serves, is the only protagonist that Dick Francis ever used more than once. Halley was a very successful jockey until he fell from a horse which trampled his left hand, abruptly ending his career. He accepts a job with a detective agency that has a racing division, but he spends a couple of years simply hanging around the office without being given any meaningful assignments. But he's willing to go with the flow, or the not-flow, as the case may be, because he's still trying to figure out what his future is going to be now that the one thing he really loved has been taken from him.

Things take a turn for the worse when one of the detectives in the office asks Halley to assist him in a minor sting and Halley winds up being shot. Now he has a crippled hand and a ventilated stomach, which will take some time to heal. His wealthy father-in-law asks Sid to visit over a weekend and Halley agrees to do so. (Sid's wife has left him, which is not at all uncommon for a protagonist in a Dick Francis novel, but he's still on good terms with her father.)

The father-in-law has an ulterior motive, which Halley soon discovers. The other weekend guests are a particularly obnoxious man and his equally disagreeable wife who enjoys being knocked about while having sex. Without telling Halley what he's up to, the father-in-law cleverly manipulates things so that Halley will wind up investigating the disagreeable guest.

The bad guy is apparently involved in a nasty scheme to sabotage a race course so that he can gain a controlling interest and turn the place into a housing development. Well, of course, we can't allow something that horrifying to happen, but once Halley is on the job, a lot of other very horrifying things will happen--most all of them to him.

Dick Francis is a very dependable author who almost always tells an interesting tale that moves swiftly along, and this book is certainly no exception. Although the protagonists do vary in nearly every book, there is a certain formula at work in these novels, and the principal characters are almost always of a type. That's certainly not a problem, and any fan of the series will want to look for this entry.

In "Odds Against," Francis's fourth fictional outing, he takes a decidedly darker turn. Although not lacking in evil villains, both "Dead Cert" and "For Kicks" had a strong aspect of glamorous wish fulfillment, and so, in its own way, did "Nerve." Alan, Rob, and Daniel all had tough times, sure, but overall they were living lives other people think they would want to lead. In "Odds Against," though, Francis creates for the first--but not the last--time a hero whose life is decidedly unaspirational, and in doing so, introduces his most long-running hero and a theme that would haunt much of his works: what do you do when the thing you most want is taken away from you, and you still have a lot of life left to live?

Sid Halley was a champion steeplechase jockey until a riding accident left him with a crippled hand and a bitter mind. He drags himself into his new job, acquired for him by his father-in-law, as a dogsbody at a private investigative firm, until one day he gets shot. While convalescing, he is once again dragged by his father-in-law into a mystery that will turn out to be much bigger than either of them expected. Sid will have to come to terms with who he really is.

Francis had a long fascination with the physically and mentally damaged, and Sid is his first, and most prominent, overtly disabled character. Still identifying as a jockey three years after the accident took place, he doesn't know what to do with himself or what to get up for in the morning, until the villains make the mistake of not taking him seriously. He discovers that he is tough, fearless, and likes to win--no surprises there, but it turns out he is tough, fearless, and likes to win off the racecourse as well as on it--but that most people fail to see this in him, something he learns to use to his advantage.

Although there's plenty of action here, and of course a tightly constructed plot that keeps you guessing till the end, the real suspense is in what Sid will do. Will he give up and go away, as he wants to? Or is he going to come back fighting? As Sid himself doesn't know and is quite astonished at times at his own behavior, it's impossible for the reader to guess (although of course we know how these books end, but still...), and the double tension drives the book forward to its nail-biting conclusion. "Odds Against" is not for the super-squeamish or fainthearted, as Sid's injuries are pretty extensive, but it heralds a new step forward in Francis's writing and now, more than 40 years after it was first published, is still fresh and shocking.

Quite advanced for its time, really. Sid Halley, an ex-jockey, is a doubly damaged anti-hero: not only does he have a smashed hand that leaves him partially disabled, he was abandoned by his mother as a toddler. After his riding career is over, he is offered a job as an investigator but his emotional scars keep him from doing much, until he meets someone as wounded as himself. Halley is a typical Francis drifter-through-life, emotionally isolated but still financially comfortable enough to know the rules of Sloane Rangerdom and enjoy rubbing shoulders with the rich.

Though his wife left him early on, his ex-father in law still has him round to the big house occasionally, and this time it's to try and kickstart his interest in life again through investigating the dodgy dealings of a wide boy with perverted sexual tastes. Unfortunately, this character isn't really revealed; I felt Francis could have done a lot more with Kraye (yup, same name as the famous murdering twins) and his past. This is the first appearance in a Francis novel of the twisted appetites that later became standard fare for the baddies--was this Francis' idea, or the publishers', I wonder? Sid comes in for a lot of physical abuse--to the place that I wondered how he lived through it, but according to Francis' autobiographies all jockeys have amazing powers of healing--or they retire early.

One thing I did notice was the odd surnames given those in power: the dilatory Lord Hagborne (born to a hag, was he?) and Captain Oxon, who in my head quickly morphed into Captain Oxo!

A quick read and a welcome change after For Kicks which I have so far been unable to finish because I find it too full of deadwood.

This first in the Sid Halley series was written back in 1965! Wow, time flies. Yes, this book is dated, but I have fond memories of reading this as a youth, and the Francis "heroes" were surprisingly nontraditional heroes. Except they almost all are physically and mentally stoic and strong.

Unsentimental, so any romantic elents ae understated. Very repressed Englishman, if you know what I mean. Friendship, courage, determination, and honesty are all values prized by Francis and his main characters. Sid is a pattern for many other Francis protagonists, so he's no exception. In this book, Sid overcomes his pain over losing his career, his one true passion being a jockey, and comes to life again in a second career as an investigator. The courage to persist even while disabled is a core trait, and even when the bad guy threatens his remaining hand, he persists to the climax of the investigation.

This is the first time I've read Dick Francis. I've read about him and I've seen the books here and there as far back as I remember, so maybe I started out with exaggerated expectations as I wasn't too enthused with the first couple of chapters.
In a way it's a tribute to Francis that I didn't - until I was beyond the first couple of chapters - check the date it was written and hadn't imagined that I was reading something from fifty years ago.
So, once I was past the point of resistance I was off, much like Francis' beloved horses, at a gallop.
Sid Halley was a famous jockey until a fall during a race when his left hand was torn apart by a flying horseshoe. He also got divorced, but has remained friends with his ex-father in law, The Admiral.
Following his enforced retirement from racing, Halley was given a job in an Investigation Agency that partially specialises in work for the Racing Fraternity but until now has been given little to do, since he considers that the job was given to him out of pity, and the last job he did for them ended up with Halley being shot in the stomach.
Sid is now back at work and the Admiral contacts Sid and asks him to come and stay for the weekend as he has a special job for him.
From this point the novel shoots off and sees Halley attempting to uncover corruption in the Racing World and prevent a corporate criminal from destroying a racecourse, as well as resurrecting himself as a credible professional investigator.
It's interesting to see not only a disabled detective, but the perception of the disabled from a 1960s viewpoint. From our perspective it may seem that Francis treats the issue with a hammer rather than a scalpel, but I suspect we do not perceive what a stigma being disabled was at the time. Halley meets a woman who is, if not severely disabled physically, is certainly seriously facially disfigured as the result of a firework accident and they learn from each other that in their own ways they attempt to hide their disfigurement from the people around them. It was, and although we have come a long way, certainly still is to an extent a social stigma. It was a bold move on Francis' part to include such a theme at the time, and I think he manages to deal with it without being either patronising or sensationalist.
There's one or two one-dimensional characters. My only gripe with the main characters is that Mr and Mrs Kraye are so unremittingly vile throughout that they become almost pantomime villains. There could have been a tad more complexity, light and shadow thrown into the mix.
Other than that I loved it. Dick Francis' passion for racing shines through with an infectious enthusiasm. A beautiful 1960s period piece that has dated very well.

Solid entertainment from a master of the suspense novel. Sid Halley borrows some biographical bits from Dick Francis.

Sid Halley is also the only Francis character to appear in more than one book. The other, as I recall, is called Whip Hand, a reference to the fact that Halley has lost his left hand to a racing accident, compounded by the actions of the villains in Odds Against.

As with most suspense novels, a lot depends upon the nastiness of the villains. In Odds Against, Francis recruits a fine crew of psychos and brutes, including the delicious, but deranged, Doria Kraye.

Enjoy!

My first Dick Francis and what a delicious feeling to think I have his whole backlist ahead of me. I couldn't get over what an interesting and complex character he created and how enjoyable it was to follow such a competent and tenacious protagonist faced with such challenging opponents. It was also fascinating to get the insight into the world of horseracing which is something I've only vaguely read about before. This book gave me some of the same feeling from reading the Bond books, but actually I think Francis is a better writer.

Another Dick Francis from my summer binge! Sid Halley is less of a cinnamon roll than my favourite characters (who really just want to stop worrying about the mysteries and get back to their lives), but he's still a very enjoyable protagonist, and I appreciated the handling of disability, which seemed unusually good for 1965. This is another one in which I figured out who was behind things way before the protagonists did, and it did frustrate me a little since Halley knows what genre he is, he's (however reluctantly) a professional!

In this book - a fast-paced, intriguing thriller - Sid Halley goes from having had everything he ever wanted and lost it to coming back to life by a near brush with death. The language is brilliant, coming across as easily written but beautiful in how it puts things, with sharp yet literary descriptions and a fascinating cast of characters.

The story is rife with knowledge about racing, company law, precious stones, and even boilers, but it reads seamlessly and the story is gripping.

I hadn't read a Dick Francis in years and years, but this book reminded me that he is a genius! And he loved horses - 100% my kind of guy.

3.5 stars.
I decided to try my first mystery and my dad loved Dick Francis, so this seemed like a good place to start. I can see why my dad loved him.
It was a well paced story and I liked that Sid was handicapped but he was an interesting character in a way that didn't always focus on the fact that he only has one hand.
I definitely learned more about horse racing and race courses than I ever expected to in my lifetime lol. I'm not sure I'll read the whole series, but I'll definitely try a couple more.