Trial Run

 

by Dick Francis (read by Tony Britton) c. 1978

an annual re-read

Set in Moscow in the run up to the 1980 Olympics, former amateur jockey and full-time gentleman farmer Randall Drew is sent to make sure that it is safe for a royally-connected equestrian to participate as there are rumors about that he shouldn't. Drew finds a lot more than rumors as he sets about his investigation in paranoid Soviet Moscow.  What a wild ride!

Solidly four star Dick Francis.

Smokescreen

 

by Dick Francis (read by Tony Britton) c. 1972

an annual re-read

 

 

 

Vintage Dick Francis, so simple yet so complicated

Edward Lincoln is a well paid movie actor who goes to South Africa to find out why the horses of a old and dying friend are not running as well as they should be and learns more than he bargained for.  I don't want to give away the slightest hint as to what this book is about because I don't want to take away any of the joy for first-time readers. All I can say is, "Read it!"

Fours stars

Risk

 

by Dick Francis (read by Tony Britton) c. 1977

annual re-read

 

 

Amateur jockey and accountant, likes small dark places

Roland Britten finds himself in the middle of a huge, on-going fraud and manages to get himself kidnapped, not once but twice! But Britten is a smart guy and his days of isolation give him plenty of time to think and to figure out what is going and who is involved.

Three and a half stars

Reflex

by Dick Francis (read by Tony Britton) c. 1980

(annual re-read)

 

Two mysteries for the price of one

 

 

Philip Nore has two mysteries to solve: one on the race course and the other off.  First there is the mystery behind the death of race course photographer George Millace, whose fatal secret Nore has unknowingly stumbled upon. Then, there is the more personal mystery of Nore's life story to be unraveled when his estranged grandmother's hapless lawyer inveigles him to look for his half-sister -- a sister he never knew existed.

Four star Francis -- more than just about solving the mystery but about the characters and what makes them tick.

Halloween Bingo: Amateur Sleuth, Murder Most Foul, Genre: Mystery, Lethal Games

 

Rat Race

 

by Dick Francis (read by Ian Ogilvy) c. 1970

(annual re-read)

 

 

 

Matt Clark, air taxi pilot

Not every main character in a Dick Francis novel works in a stable or rides a horse. It is one of the joys of reading Dick Francis.

Matt Clark is a down-and-out former airline pilot now flying for a small air taxi service.  The first day on the job his airplane is blown up on the ground (no injuries) and he is sucked into a tale of murder and intrigue as he works to figure out whodunit -- because Francis heroes are nothing if they are not relentlessly, perhaps even dangerously, curious.

Almost four stars, for its tight plotting and fine writing. 

 

 

Halloween Bingo: Amateur Sleuth, Murder Most Foul, Vintage Mystery, Lethal Games, Genre:Mystery

The Sittaford Mystery

 

by Agatha Christie ( read by Hugh Fraser) c. 1931

An "Agatha Christie Centenary Celebration" Read

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grumpy old men

At last, perhaps, Christie has found her stride.

Lots of interesting interpersonal politics in this one. The victim is a rich, antisocial bachelor (Asperger's perhaps?), living in a very small community of shut-ins and social misfits near Dartmoor (what a setting!). The sleuth is a very capable woman who needs to be needed but at the same time is a user of people, especially men.  The culprit... well let's not go there and spoil the book -- although I will say that I would have liked to have known more about the murderer.

I liked the story very much. The characters were interesting and made me think (which really doesn't happen as often these days). Why so many bachelors and why so much misogyny among them? Why are these guys hiding themselves on the moor? Is this more post-war damage? Are they not able to face a world that is changing so rapidly? I won't even go down the homosexual road, because I think that it is much more of a current concern that it was when the book was written. Things were different in the 1930s and it is unfair to judge by today's standards. I have decided that one learn a lot more about social history, what things were like in those days, by accepting that things were different rather than by interpreting things through the narrow lens of todays standards. How else do we know how far we have come, if we don't know where we started?

If we are ranking the reads so far, this one is at the top of the list along with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Murder at the Vicarage. It is so clear that she is in her element when she writes about country villages and the murderers who live there -- and avoids world conspiracy and megalomania.

Three and three-quarters stars

Halloween Bingo: Genre: Mystery, Amateur Sleuth, Lethal Games, Vintage Mystery, Country House Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Murder Most Foul, Supernatural(?), When Mother Nature Strikes (?)

Proof

 

by Dick Francis (read by Tony Britton)

 

 

Classic Dick Francis

I have been reading this book once a year for the past several years. I love it!! I love the way Francis draws us through the story as the investigators slowly piece the clues together and solve the puzzle.

Wine merchant and taster Tony Beach becomes enmeshed in a murder investigation when he is asked by two different investigators for help with cases that need the expertise of his discriminating palate, cases which turn out to be related.

Four star Dick Francis.

Halloween Bingo:  Amateur Sleuth,  Genre: Mystery,  Genre: Suspense,  Murder Most Foul,  Lethal Games

The Case of the Deadly Butter Chicken

 

by Tarquin Hall (read by Sam Dastor)

Book 3: Vish Puri

 

 

 

 

Wherein Vish Puri faces his prejudices

I found this series a few years ago but did not rush to finish it. With the help of the library, I have now read the first four of five and will wait until the fifth becomes available at the library. The writing is good. The characters are interesting and developing over time. Hall is taking his time, letting us know what we need to know when we need to know it, not rushing like some insecure speed-dater trying to tell everything in three minutes. Character development is more like peeling an onion, one layer at time, and we are now beyond the pompous middle-aged detective we met in the first case.

For a cozy mystery series, the stories have a bit of a hard edge. In this episode, the author delves a bit into the India-Pakistan situation and the discontent sown when Pakistan separated from India and became an independent country. Vish Puri must confront his own fears, prejudices and misconceptions when a case requires him to make his first trip to Pakistan. I can't say much more without spoilers--and I don't want to spoil the book for anyone.

Three and half stars for this one, I think, because of the way Hall was able to weave a history lesson into the story without being preachy or judgemental.

 

Halloween Bingo:  Genre: Mystery, Lethal Games, Cozy Mystery,  Murder Most Foul

 

< Fade to black as music swells 𝅘𝅥𝅮 "He Had It Coming"𝅘𝅥𝅮 >

Odds Against

 

Dick Francis (read by Tony Britton)

published 1965

In which we meet Sid Halley

When an illegal takeover of a race-course is suspected, ex-jump-jockey Sid Halley investigates. It is his first  case and he is up to his eyebrows. But after three years hanging around the office of Hunt Radnor Associates, Halley has learned a lot about investigating and eventually figures it all out.

This is the first of 5 Sid Halley stories. The first three were written by Dick Francis (with 30 years between the first and the third).  The fourth by an aging Dick Francis in collaboration with his son Felix and the fifth by Felix Francis after his father's death (and it was terrible).  Odds Against was Dick Francis's fourth mystery novel and his first Edgar award nomination.  He would go on to become the only three time Edgar winner (two of which were for Sid Halley sequels).

I always read the Sid Halley stories with mixed emotions. While these are all very well-written and Sid Halley is one of the toughest characters in the Francis pantheon, there are sections that I skip because the malevolence and utter sadistic brutality portrayed is more than I want to read. If all his books were this way, I would have long since stopped reading anything by Francis.

 

Four stars