Dick Francis was the jockey to the Queen of England for four seasons. When he retired from horse racing, he tried to write a novel about horse racing. It turned out that he was talented and developed a huge following around the world, including the Queen of England.
I have read many of Dick Francis’s 40+ novels. I always know that a Francis novel is going to be almost impossible to put down. in fact i read Crossfire In a day. (It was the Reader’s Digest Condensed Book version.) It was as good as all of his work.
Well, to be fair, Mr. Francis did have a co-author on this book, his son, Felix. However, I couldn’t see any substantial difference in style from his other novels I’ve read. Perhaps his son brought more current events, like the main character, Tom Forsyth, being a Captain in the British Army, who served in Afghanistan. The story begins with his war injury, the loss of his foot, from an IED (Improvised Explosive Device). Released from the hospital months later, Captain Forsyth returns to his childhood home to a cold reception from his mother and stepfather.
But this is where the story really begins, because Forsyth quickly learns that his mother, a racehorse trainer, has been swindled and blackmailed. The Captain becomes a detective and begins to investigate who is blackmailing his mother.
He is found kidnapped and left to die. He investigates the death of his mother’s accountant. And he learns that he is in a very deadly game being played by two men who appear to be upstanding citizens.
Horse racing is just the context of her mother’s life. The real story is in the mystery of who is committing the fraud and blackmail.
As always, Francis knows how to tell a story. He knows how to make it very interesting without getting bogged down. In his more than 40 international best-selling novels, he always develops the plot believably and coherently.
In 1962, Francis published his first novel in 1962. The setting for that story, dead certificate, was the world of horse racing. For the next 38 years he wrote a novel a year, only missing 1998 (when he published a collection of short stories).
Dick Francis died in February 2010, a few months before this novel was published. He will be missed by many, including me. But, I still have a lot more of his novels to read, so he really hasn’t left us.
