Banker

Above average Francis thriller. Formula remains intact: square-jawed, unlikely hero with principles of steel.

It takes place over the course of three years which is unusual for Francis and it helps give some heft to the story. The premise of a merchant banker becoming involved the world of racing deos not at first excite but, as ever, Francis weaves a taut tale and this one is well recommended mid-period Francis.

I was a huge Dick Francis fan back in the day, and now I’m remembering why. What a fantastic book! I belonged to a book club back then, where they send you a new hardback book every month. I can’t even remember what it was called. I managed to collect many of DF’s new releases in this way. We didn’t have a book store in town in the 70’s and 80’s. The only place to get books was to drive down the mountain and go to book store in the mall. The library was too small to satisfy me. What great memories. Now here are a bunch of them free on Audible. Such a treat! Simon Prebble is perfect to read Tim Ekaterin, the handsome, earnest, dedicated, reckless merchant banker in love with his boss’s wife. It is great as an audiobook because the build up is so slow and quiet you don’t have the chance to get bored, as I think I did when I read it. Of course, I was barely 30 with toddlers back then. I appreciate good writing a lot more now. This is very good writing.

Very interesting. I have always loved how Francis was able to find some of the more obscure aspects of the horse business and make them the center of an engaging mystery. I grew up on a large horse farm, so in many ways this took me back to that time period. It also reminded me how many nuts are attracted to the horse business. Fortunately I never ran across a murderous nut like Calder, but his oddball healing remedies certainly reminded me of some of the truly strange people that operate on the periphery of the horse business.

I adore Dick Francis’s novels. They are brilliantly plotted, feature likeable and resourceful heroes, and have satisfying denouements. As a retired jockey, Francis located ALL his books in or around the world of horse racing. This narrow universe fortunately doesn’t interfere with one’s pleasure in the plot and characters.

In fact, I read so many of them (repeatedly) that a friend thought I was interested in horse racing! Anyway, I took Dick Francis as my model when I started writing fiction, and my new book The Lie-Catcher in the Primate House ( under my pen name Lindsay Crane; available mid-2012) does, I hope, reflect his style.

Banker was the first one I read and I was hooked.

Tim Ekaterin is the great grandson of Ekaterin Banking's founder. But he didn't get the job through nepotism, or not exactly. In fact, Tim had found other work, eschewing banking altogether. That is, until his father drank himself to death and his mother bankrupted herself losing large bets on horse racing. But Uncle Freddie had seen Tim's natural banking talent when - n  at age 8n - he was able to compute a Pound's compound interest at various rates over a 40 year timespan. Uncle Freddie promised financial support to the bankrupt family if Tim would promise 3 months at the bank. The story opens 8 years later.

It's Dick Francis. Was I supposed to think banking was going to be the story? Nope. It's horses. Horses, always horses. And horses I got. I'm not sure I ever thought about - nor wanted to know - about what it takes to run a stud farm. And there is also a decent mystery, because, well, why else do you read Dick Francis?

This was all plot, but was exactly what I was ready to read. I most certainly wouldn't want this as a steady diet, but I see my last Dick Francis was 5 years ago. I probably would be happy reading him a tad more frequently. I have another on hand and will try to remember to find another to have in the paddock. This is probably only 3 stars, but I enjoyed myself so much I've found an extra star.

Regular guy✔️
Low key affect✔️
More clever than he looks✔️
Quick thinker✔️
Very good at his job✔️
Distant/nonexistent parent✔️
Saves the day (spoiler-more than once)✔️
Downplays his actions✔️
Odd romantic situation✔️

Not that I’m complaining. There’s comfort in Dick Francis’ heroic every man.

tBanker wrote by the author Dick Francis is an adventurous mystery that was published in 1982. Francis was first known as a champion steeplechase jockey that later expanded his fame by writing many crime solving novels. His style revolves around grabbing the reader’s attention on the first page, and keeps their attention by making the reader’s wanting to know how everything falls into place and comes out i the end.
tTim Ekaterin is a banker in England who loans out money to those who he believes is able to pay everything back with interest. His most jeopardizing loan was Five Million Pounds to a stud farm to purchase a thoroughbred racehorse, Sandcastle, who was on a great winning streak. When Sandcastle’s foals started showing genetic defects, it is up to Tim to try and help figure out what is going wrong. Sandcastle was tested positive to have good chances for fertility, and not having any problems in his lineage, all these defects came up as a surprise to the new owner, Oliver Knowles, and all the people who had mares covered by Sandcastle. As evidence starts to piece together slowly, Tim gets caught in the middle of a murder case, and now he is desperately trying to solve the answers to his questions. The characterization within this novel is very realistic. All the characters seem like a complete normal person somebody would meet in their life. Francis allows the readers to be able to also feel the emotions going through Tim, Oliver, and the other characters throughout the three years this novel covers. The readers are able to relate to Tim and the ways of juggling work, friends, and his outside work life all at once. The plot to the novel is very authentic. Starting it off with the work setting at the bank, and slowly transferring it to the atmosphere focused around horses and horse races is a very subtle and smooth transfer that makes a large impact on the plot.
tThe theme of this novel is to always follow your heart and mind. Tim was put into a tough position having to decide what was the right thing to do for the bank. He could have either denied the loan to the stud farm and the bank wouldn’t have to worry whatsoever about a couple million pounds of their money, or he could have accepted the loan (which he did) and put that couple million pounds towards something than is not an absolute sure case to be safe. When he agreed on the loan, everything seemed fine with the stud farm: it had a good reputation, the owner has paid off numerous other large loans making him trustworthy to pay the money back, and Sandcastle was checked out by a vet and was cleared that he would be able to produce good foals. So, with all that, Tim decided that backing the loan was a good idea for the bank, and he went with it. A moral to the novel would be that not everything in life will go as planned. Even though Sandcastle was sure to produce great foals that had excellent genetic potential, the horse somehow had foals that were defected in multiple ways that all lead to having the foals be put down. So, now Tim has to figure out what to do about the money he loaned and help try to figure out how to make sure the loan gets paid off fully. Banker is a novel that is very similar to the novel Flying Finish that was also wrote by Dick Francis. These two novels are similar, because they both have an unexpected twist. In Banker, the horse Sandcastle somehow has something going wrong to cause defected progeny, and in Flying Finish, the main character believes he is just transporting race horses through the air, but finds out he is transporting something completely different. The novel is also similar to a show called Heartland where one of the episodes involved Amy, the main character, trying to figure out why one of her client horses she is working with, that happens to be a race horse, has a big fear of feeling vibrations on its body.
tAnyone who decides to read this novel, should be aware that it involves murder, and talks about how mares are covered by stallions. I would recommend this book to anybody that loves a good mystery case, and anyone who like to learn as much as possible about horses. High schoolers all the way into adulthood would be a good age group that would really enjoy this novel, middle schoolers and any younger might have some difficulty trying to read and understand what is going on. This novel is just appropriate for advanced students, because of some intricate words the author used.

Partway through I really wondered why I'd read that this book is reputed to be Mr. Francis' best. It's an interesting story with likeable characters, but it didn't really seem to be going anywhere. But then things changed. When I got to the end I saw how all the rest of the story contributed to the conclusion and how the time spent on character development caused it to have more impact.