Crossfire (2010)

Early in the collaboration between Dick and Felix Francis the book is a little rough around the edges. In later novels and those written by just Felix Francis you can see an increased comfort in the writer with how he likes to present his material.

Tom Forsythe is a career soldier injured in Afghanistan. Discharged from both the hospital and the army due to his amputated leg and lacking any home outside the army barracks he aimlessly wanders back to his mother's house. While there he tends to fall back into the slightly adversarial relationship with his mother and step-father and begins to examine his reactions while learning to adjust to life with his prosthetic leg. It turns out that his mother, a successful racehorse trainer, is being blackmailed for not paying her taxes due to advice from a new accountant. It becomes dangerous when Tom attempts to recover his mother's money and subsequently "lost" in a bad financial investment by the questionable and now dead accountant. Tom begins to investigate and discovers a false investment scheme and begins to untangle the many strings of deceit.

The self-reflection by Tom during the course of events feels appropriate for one who is experiencing great upheaval due to drastic changes in their life's pattern. So there is comparison on how he would act as a soldier given an enemy's actions.

I would like to see this character again in another book, especially now that Felix Francis has developed a smoother writing style. ( )

After being wounded at war, Captain Thomas Forsyth is facing six months of leave time to recuperate at his childhood home. Feeling restless and uneasy at the prospect of returning home, Forsyth is not prepared for what he finds back at home. His mother, a champion racehorse trainer, who he has never seen eye to eye with, is being threatened with something far more sinister than the loss of a race. His military skills are tested once again as he faces the threat with the same attitude as the battlefield - kill or be killed.

horse racing ( )

Mmm. Don't like it. It's not terrible, but I don't think I'll reread it. Part of the problem is that I don't like the hero - for all the wounded hero bit, he's too self-pitying and too quick to pick a fight with his family. He's also, it becomes clear, an adrenaline junkie - I don't think his final disposition will satisfy him for long. Then - the story is rather choppy, and he keeps making assumptions. The first few don't go too badly - they are involved, if not primary actors - but the last one very nearly gets him killed and does kill someone else. And he keeps going off in half-page military...not reminiscences, it's not his memories...history bits? To back up "surprise is the best weapon", the author spends a page discussing Pearl Harbor in detail, not just the attack but exactly what damage was done. Utterly irrelevant - a passing comment about Pearl Harbor would have made sense, but it was written as if none of the readers would have a clue what Pearl Harbor was and as if the details of the attack were important to the story. I find the former unlikely and the latter untrue. There were no characters I really liked here - Mr. Whiny and Mrs. Bossy are majors, all the other women who play any noticeable part are sex-starved... Ian is one of the least unpleasant characters, and he's nothing much. I think I liked Mr. Sutton best, and he's in a nursing home and can't hold a thought for more than a few minutes. Bleah. Not the only Francis I won't reread, but a worrying sign. I hope Felix can do better in the future. ( )

Bleh. Not worth finishing. ( )