Third Race at the LT Racetrack: Book 6, Shattered

Dick Francis Shared Read 2021 – November - December

Shattered – published in 2000



Synopsis: When jockey Martin Stukely dies after a fall at Cheltenham, he accidentally embroils his friend Gerard Logan in a perilous search for a stolen videotape.

Logan is a glass-blower on the verge of widespread acclaim for the originality of his work. Long accustomed to the frightful dangers inherent in molten glass and in maintaining a glass-making furnace at seldom less than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, Logan is suddenly faced with terrifying threats to his livelihood, his courage and, finally, to his life, as he seeks to find the truth. The final race to the tape throws more hazards in Logan's way than his dead jockey friend could have imagined.
From Dick Francis’s Website

Any and all comments, questions, or quotes that come to mind as you read are welcome. Please use spoiler tags for anything that might be a spoiler.

I just started planning my reads for November, and added Gebroken (the Dutch translation of Shattered) to my list.

This is the cover (from the e-library):

Nice cover, Anita. I probably won't wait til the end of the 2-month reading cycle to start Shattered, like I did with Decider.

I pulled out Shattered just now, and realize that this was a gift to my mother-in-law, Bill's mama, from a dear friend of hers.

I just finished Shattered.

I don't remember reading it before, but did have it tagged 'read'. It felt more formulaic than many other books, and the missing videotape - wait - two videotapes - wait - three videotapes made things more confusing than they needed to be. The typical feel-good elements - eccentric mothers, many children, obvious money floating around in the background - felt forced, and the totally unnecessary death of Gerard's lady-cop-love-interest's partner left a bad taste in my mouth.

I am personally happy to either let the SHARED Reads end gracefully or for someone else to take over. I've now read all 6 books for each of the three years, plus two bonus books, making a total of 20 books in 3 years. I think I'm done reading Dick Francis for a while.

>5 karenmarie: It certainly wasn't the best Francis I have read, Karen.
I wrote: Average story, not always convincing.

I will continue reading available Dick Francis books next year. I might read Come to Grief this month. I put it up as possible extra read, as I am not sure yet how far I will get into the month with my planned reads.

Hi Anita! Yes, I agree with your assessment.

I may or may not read any next year - if I do, it will probably be the Felix Francis collaborations or even a Felix Francis standalone. I have 3 collaborations and 2 standalones that I haven't read yet.