Dick Francis: a Crime Reader’s Guide to the Classics

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From Crime Reads:

Dick Francis was a master of the first line, the first paragraph, the first page. Once read, they hooked you immediately. Nothing would keep you from wanting to find out what happened next.

Take the opening of Straight (1989):

“I inherited my brother’s life. Inherited his desk, his business, his gadgets, his enemies, his horses and his mistress. I inherited my brother’s life, and it nearly killed me.”

So much packed into three sentences. First, note the rule of three: inherited…inherited…inherited. Short-long-short-boom. How did his brother die? Were his enemies responsible? What was his business? His “gadgets”? Wait, inherited his mistress? Nearly killed him? You’ve got to find out, don’t you?

A few other choice openers:

“I had told my drivers never on any account to pick up a hitchhiker, but of course one day they did, and by the time they reached my house, he was dead.” (Driving Force, 1992)

“Sadly, death at the races is not uncommon. However, three in a single afternoon was sufficiently unusual to raise more than an eyebrow.” (Under Orders, 2006)

“I intensely disliked my father’s fifth wife, but not to the point of murder.” (Hot Money, 1987)

“I was never particularly keen on my job before the day I got shot and nearly lost it, along with my life. But the .38 slug of lead that made a pepper shaker out of my intestines left me with fire in my belly in more ways than one.” (Odds Against, 1995)

“Fire in the belly” is an apt term for all of Francis’s heroes—maybe not at first, but once their sense of injustice is aroused, they are driven. Most of them are ordinary blokes with a keen morality and, once spurred, they prove to be more courageous and resourceful than they—or their enemies—had thought themselves to be. They’re often a bit damaged—physically, mentally, or both—stalwart yet sensitive men in the 30s, who come from dysfunctional families and are often single—divorced, widowed, in love with someone inappropriate (a relative, a friend’s wife) and thus unable to act on it—and if he’s married, it might be to someone with a debilitating condition that makes physical intimacy impossible. Francis never made it easy for his heroes (though sometimes he let them meet someone romantically suitable by the end of the book).

Link to the rest at Crime Reads

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10 thoughts on “Dick Francis: a Crime Reader’s Guide to the Classics”

  1. I read the Look Inside portion of Straight. I chose not to buy it, because the main character — a jockey — does not sound like jockeys I have known. The guy sounds like a Cambridge graduate.

    YMMV.

    • Some of his characters came from wealthy families. I can’t recall which book was the first. “Odds Against” I think? “Dead Cert” or maybe “Nerve” – Try one of the earliest ones.

      I can’t tell one English accent from the next, they all sound posh to me, sorry.

  2. Dick Francis is one of my favorite authors. It was a sad day when he passed. His son has never made the mark, so I quit reading those follow-ons. Straight is my most favorite because I have always been fascinated by gadgets and that added just a bit more pepper to the story.

  3. I’m a Dick Francis fan, particularly of the early books where the hero is poor – the later ones, where the hero hires a Mercedes and stays in a hotel when pursued by the baddies, aren’t quite the same. They are supreme page-turners – like many others I’ve stayed up into the small hours finishing his books. I think all his heroes are more or less the author, and very appealing. The heroines tend to be tiresome; the only one I like is Joanna in ‘Nerve’. My favourite quote is from that book:

    “My mother…had by her example shown me many qualities to admire…a refusal to be content with a low standard when a higher one could be achieved merely by working.”

    I intended my third novel, ‘Remix’, to be a sort of Dick Francis without the horses (though the heroine does restore rocking horses for a living). One or two reviewers said it reminded them of Dick Francis, which pleased me.

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