One of his best books, lovable characters, great plot...

We have read every Dick Francis novel, some forty (!) in all. We marvel at the author's ability to endear the lead characters to the reader within just a few pages. While our hero is always a man, it is always a man men would like to be like, and women would like to find! Tim Ekaterin is no exception -- while he works in an investment bank, making daily decisions on big business loans, he is all of humble, courteous and pleasant, sensitive, caring, personable and smart. No wonder he is successful, even if his family founded the institution in question.

One of Tim's loans is to syndicate a champion racehorse getting ready to perform at stud. From this development we learn not only a good deal about investment banking but the inside of the horse breeding business, especially from a financial viewpoint. When the offspring start to show birth defects, irregularly, our hero is suspicious enough to practically start living at the stables to unravel what is going on. When the horse owner's daughter, with whom Tim has developed an affectionate plutonic relationship, is murdered, the mystery gets really serious. Are the TV celebrity horse "healer" and herbal remedy specialist and his "cooperative" veterinarian bad guys or victims? Can Tim's pharmacist "girlfriend" help trace some important clues? Will the horse farm and Tim's reputation survive?

An interesting sub-plot, one presented in poignant prose, concerns Tim's boss Gordon, who is slowly losing the war with Parkinson's disease, and Gordon's wife Judith. While it's not clear how it got started, Tim and Judith find themselves in love, but are too honorable to ever act on their feelings. Toward the end of the book, when Gordon's health is in serious jeopardy, will Tim and Judith get the chance to unite?

Francis is known for relatively non-violent mysteries, with pleasant leading characters, and enough suspense to entertain, even if at a level less than the thrills and chills of writers like Patterson or Sandford. Nonetheless, we love his characters, and never fail to enjoy his stories. "Banker" is indeed one of our favorite books of all time.
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We recently decided as a way to "downsize" our hardback collection to re-read some of our favorites of all time, starting with this one. Second time around (admittedly a long-time after the first time) it was just as compelling, although now much later in life ourselves, we were a little disappointed at the ending that left us wondering where the "love affair" would go -- although we certainly can use our imagination!

This is one where it spans a period of three years, very unusual in a Dick Francis novel. Investment banker helps a man invest in a stallion for breeding purposes. This gets sabotaged. Investment banker turned friend comes to the rescue, after all, he has a vested interested. And a strong sense of fair play.

On the side, the investment banker invests in a cartoonist/animators business. He strikes gold and it is wildly successful. I can't help but wonder if this is Wallace and Gromit. Wouldn't you liked to have started on the ground floor with them?

Another wonderful Dick Francis book. Although it is entitled Banker, he still weaves in a story about race horses. Finished it in one day!

Dick Francis books are always a good read! I haven't disliked any of his books yet, and I have read almost all of them.

His main character is always likeable, easy going, yet comes through when he finds himself is a tricky situation. Which always seems to happen. He also includes background information on some aspect of the environment in which the story takes place - usually around horses.

So it is no surprise that Banker gets 5 stars. The story is typically horse related (which one always expects from the author). It is an engaging mystery, along with a few lessons about horse breading industry. The characters "make sense", and the combination of plot and character development and understanding makes the book very easy to read and enjoy.

I enjoyed this crime novel very much until the sad scene about Ginnie and then nearly gave up on it. I am glad that I continued, though, as the text didn’t dwell as much on the tragedy as to make me extremely uncomfortable, and I was rewarded by the revelations. Surprisingly addictive; never thought I’d be so interested in things related to horse racing and investment. I’m not sure how many other race crime stories I could read though.

I don't know what to say... I don't know where to start...

Dick Francis gets a lot of praise from The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Review, and the Associate Press. They all agree that Dick Francis is one of the best writers of his time. Sorry folks, but I have to disagree, whole-heartedly.

I found that "Banker" was a very long, drawn out book. Out of 341 pages, 20 pages at the beginning and the last 125 pages were devoted to the murder mystery at hand. The balance of the book is left for the reader to learn about horses, mares, foaling, drugs and horse racing.

Not like all other British authors, Dick Francis doesn't blend the story and the plot together smoothly. He leaves no room for the imagination; covers too much other material that shouldn't be in the novel; the characters are bland and blah and have no sense of cohesiveness.

All in all, the story dragged on. Being a first time Francis reader, maybe I expected more from him. This book is not recommend. Ever.

A Dick Francis book is a dependable favorite but, of course, some are better than others. Although I enjoyed learning more about breeding thoroughbreds and stud farms this book was rather pedantic in its instruction. The merchant bank angle was also interesting but not compelling. There was a certain sterility to the entire book, and I did not get emotionally involved with any of the characters.

There were several things that kept this novel from the top rung of Francis' fiction. The romantic angle was creepy with two inappropriate relationships and one that was just odd. The mystery was only a mystery to the protagonist. I'm sure that most readers figured it out right away because the villain was so obvious. The part that bothered me the most, however, was the totally unnecessary death of one of the secondary characters. The plot could easily have advanced successfully with this character being rendered unconscious and rallying at the end.

I will remember the financial considerations of breeding a champion stallion but little else in the book is memorable.

Like the author & theme. Read & re-read most of them. Entertaining and eventful mysteries, tightly woven scripts, believable cast.Recommended.

Standard Dick Francis. Twisty plot, interestingly presented horse-related topics (horse racing as usual, but an emphasis on breeding this time), an unrealistically heroic “everyman” hero, emotions more stated than shown, but overall engrossing good yarn.

Good Mystery with a Hint of Philosophical Meanderings

Published in the early 80s, this almost counts as historical fiction with regards to dated material and police procedure, but I think Dick Francis began with the question: What if you saved someone's life and they turned out to be a bad person? The end product is well done and worth mulling over. Is justice served? Does Revenge ever satisfy? Can two people love without consummation?

Really enjoyable read. A classic Dick Francis mystery set as usual around the world of horse racing, this time our hero being a merchant banker who takes a punt to finance a dual classic winner being purchased to go to stud. Risky business in the world of banking as there are so many things that could go wrong.

However, in this story, the insurance for the finance is very high due to practically all risks being covered however they didn't account for a celebrity rogue horse healer and his dishonest practices.

Fast moving, well developed cast and great plot makes this one of those books you just can't put down and when forced to do so, can't wait to pick up again and carry on.

Great book.

Read this 15 years ago, decided to re-read now (actually listen to the audiobook version by Simon Prebble, who is very good). This is the best of Dick Francis's books, in my opinion. The plotting is inventive and everything comes together so well. I even didn't mind the love subplot, because even though you can see from a mile away how things are going to end, it is satisfying when they do.

The main plot is about financing a stud farm. If you don't know much about horse breeding, you will learn a lot by the end of this book. The life of a champion racer who is put up to stud is, shall we say, cushy. He gets to "cover" 40 mares a year at a premium stud fee each, and he doesn't even have to race, just eat good food and prance about a paddock if he feels like it. Unless, that is, he is found to produce malformed offspring. It is up to the main character, our Banker of the title, to solve the mystery.

The hero is a typical Dick Francis lead: decisive, brave, clever, honorable. The kind of man who will rush to stop a raging stallion without thinking. He will sustain gruesome injuries, and he will recover from them at a good clip and with a stiff upper lip. It does get a bit tedious after a few books to have that same character appear under different names and in different occupations, so you have to ration these books. Don't do a lot of them at once. I have to say, though, that this one is memorable and startling, and the main mystery plot is very well done. I would definitely recommend this book as a good first Dick Francis to try. If you don't like this one, you probably won't like the rest.