Hot Money

When you are saddled with relatives like those of jockey Ian Pembroke, you've got valid cause for concern. For starters, there's Ian's father, Malcolm, a gold arbitraguer with a Midas touch in everything but wives (he's had five). Then there are the ex-wives themselves: Ian's grudge-bearing mother; a vicious pair called "the witches"; a fourth wife? dead in a tragic accident; and now the last and most detestable, a murder victim.

Malcolm Pembroke had nine children with four of his five wives. His fifth wife, Moira, has just been murdered, and Malcolm seems to be the prime suspect in the eyes of the police. When someone makes an attempt on Malcolm's life, he turns to his middle son, Ian, for protection and assistance in finding Moira's murderer and his attempted murderer. Despite not having spoken to Ian in the three years since Moira came into his life, Ian is the only one of his adult children that Malcolm trusts.

This book isn't as well-paced as Francis's best work, and it wasn't a page-turner like most of Francis's novels have been for me. However, I very much enjoyed the relationship between Ian and Malcolm. Ian's amateur jockey status added a new twist to show more this story, and Malcolm's initiation into the world of horse racing and the joy it brought him was infectious. show less

Wealthy gold investor Malcom Pembroke has had five wives (including one dead and one recently murdered). He has seven live children (about half with spouses and children of their own). He also has a son who is institutionalized for brain damage. This son was the sole survivor of an automobile accident that killed his mother and brother.

Now someone is trying to kill Malcom.

Recently, he has been spending millions of pounds on frivolous pursuits while his offspring are all scrambling for money.

Could it be that someone in the family wants to inherit Malcom’s money before he spends it all? Would a family member be willing to kill him?

Malcom settles on his estranged son Ian, an amateur race jockey, to help him solve the puzzle and keep him show more alive.

The horses are almost a secondary story in this novel. The complicated family relationships are what make this story shine – and moves it into the pole position as one of my favorite Dick Francis reads. show less

The usual well paced well crafted mystery, though this time the family is about as dysfunctional as it gets and in resolution one one of Francis' novels is more tragic as far as I recall. Ian isn't my favorite viewpoint character, though Malcolm is a magnificent creation.

Another fantastic everyman mystery by my boy Dick Francis. Man, I just loved him so much.

This one focuses of family, the heavy burden of being wealthy, and how your upbringing can mess you up, big time. Malcolm Pembroke collects wives and kids like he does money--that is to say he has a lot of all three. And they are dysfunctional, natch, like you would expect. Enter everyman good bloke and amateur jockey, Ian. Son number 3 (I think) out of nine. He's honest, and forthright, and saves the day like I expected him to, because that's what Francis wrote best.

This is a really good one for family dynamics, a twisted plot, and unexpected results. 4 stars and a thumbs up to old Dick.

I started listening to this audio book version only a few days before the death of Dick Francis, so it was a bittersweet listen. I re-read Dick Francis novels on a fairly regular basis, and believe I own most of them. They are always great "escape" books for me -- they are easy to breeze through, have engaging plots and characters, and there are so many of them, that I rarely remember the endings, so usually have fun figuring out the mystery. This book is a little different from most. It's much more of a character study and doesn't include the extreme survival conditions that some of Francis' characters often find themselves in.

Ian's estranged and extremely wealthy father reconnects with him one day. It turns out someone is trying to show more kill him, and he thinks it's possibly one of his many other children, or one of his three ex-wives. Ian sets out to protect his father and discover who the potential murderer is. There are lots of details of horse-racing and race horse buying, bomb-making, and the usual great research that goes into a Dick Francis book. This is one of my favorites.

A note on the audio book -- absolutely fantastic reading by Tony Britton. I would highly recommend any other audio book read by him. show less

Well, I wasn't sure what I was expecting with this. I had Dick Francis in my head under 'crime' or maybe 'thriller' - definitely 'popular books for men in the 1980's, page turning' - but had never felt any great interest in them. What it actually is is remarkably similar to Jilly Cooper (well, without all the sex). Lots of colourfully drawn characters, lots of money being splashed about, and lots of horses. Just with an added murder mystery. As Jilly Cooper was one of my favourite dirty secrets when I was a teenager, it is unsurprising that I enjoyed this. I have a feeling if I'd read lots of 1980's crime I might think it was formulaic and following all the tropes - but I hadn't. Something happened in the book that actually really show more surprised me, which I think is a sign I should read outside my favourite genres more often. show less