Longshot

Ever since my friend Jaq became ill with terminal cancer, I have been working my way through her complete collection of Dick Francis novels. She had been recommending them to me for years, saying they were "ripping good yarns", but I had demurred. Not my cup of tea, and all that.

Well. What a fool I was. Yes, they usually involve murder, and yes, they do involve sports, and no, I have never been big on either. But they are so much more (and for those who ARE big on murder and sports, they're pretty darn good in those categories, btw). They are about people, ordinary people, generally good-hearted but not always. Families matter. People face illness, loss, despair. They also have jobs, and their jobs are not just backdrops, but things we show more learn about, whether it is gold trading or horse selling or plane flying. Indeed, Mary Francis would go out and get trained in whatever job she and Richard would be writing about in their next novel as "Dick", and the details are mouth watering.

Longshot is the Francis's thirtieth novel, and everything comes together here. The writing is mature, the characters are well developed, the plot moves well, and I learned a lot. It is set in England, as most but not all of the novels were, and we get to learn about horse training through the eyes of a writer who is to write the biography of an older, well respected trainer. It is moving at times, funny and warm and tense in turns. I am only sorry to see how close I am now getting to the final books. And that I don't have Jaq around to delight in them with me. show less

Substance: Gets started rather slowly, with the to-be-solved murder revealed late in the book, but set-up is worth the wait. Protagonist John Kendall is one of the mild-mannered but frighteningly competent heroes of the Francis oevre. Lots of interesting insights into writing, publishing, and survival techniques, plus racing of course.
For the record, I don't think Kendall's choice in the end would "play" the way Francis asserts.
Style: More easy-going than some of the earlier works, also the ratiocination takes a back seat to the character-studies.
NOTE: Read for third time.

This review is for the audio edition narrated by Tony Britton.

John Kendall is a travel writer specializing in survival manuals who has quit his day job to write novels. His first novel has been accepted for publication, but his advance is being rapidly depleted when he is offered the job of writing a biography for a famous racehorse trainer. The job has the added advantage of free room and board at the training stables somewhere in Berkshire. He is quickly accepted by the family of the trainer, Tremaine Vickers, and is even offered an opportunity of riding some of the horses on training runs. Not long after he has started to settle in, a missing stable girl’s body is found in woods not far from the stables. The Detective Inspector show more (Britton is excellent with this character’s voice) assigned to the case considers John enough of an outsider to be able to supply clues to the potential murderers’ characters and possible motives. However, John’s speculations about who the murderer could be land him in a couple of harrowing survival scenarios.

I have loved Dick Francis’s thrillers since I discovered them in about 1987, and have always known they follow a certain well-worn (and for me well-loved) track. The things that keep them from becoming redundant and boring are the characters and settings. I hadn’t ever really read them as anything other than sheer entertainment; however, I also read Hot Money earlier this year, and I was surprised on listening to Longshot at the similarity in underlying themes between these two stories. Both are more character driven than some of Francis’s other stories, and both have a similar ending. Hot Money was published in 1987, and also contains a character who must discover who in a family is a murderer. The endings of both books are ambiguous and leave one wanting to read more about the characters’ subsequent lives.

This is one of Francis’s better works. His characters are likable, the plot moves along quickly, and the research into various survival skills is meticulous. I especially enjoyed the dialogue about midway through between John Kendall and a fictional well-known author who complains that John is too young to have the experience necessary to write great books. John replies that he writes to “entertain.” One imagines Francis having similar conversations throughout his long career, with a similar response.

The audio production was done in about 1995, and I downloaded it from audible.com. The sound quality wasn’t very good in parts, but I loved Tony Britton’s narration of Hot Money, and purposely chose this audio version over the one with Kenneth Branagh. It was a great listening experience, and I recommend the book, either audio or print, to lovers of a good yarn. show less

While the story itself and the horseracing and murder aspect was enjoyable, I actually found the survivalism aspect more fun (and educational) to read about. I enjoyed reading about the trips to the wood as the author was teaching his boss' son and his friend various survival techniques in the woods, and other survival trivia learned from the accident at the boathouse, for example. It was fun to read about what you would need and what kind of kit to carry with you. Overall a fun book.

This book is one of Dick Francis' best, and I have read a lot of his! It's about a writer, John Kendall, who is freezing and rationing food as he works on his second novel in someone's attic. He just happens to go to his agent when a racehorse trainer is also there trying to find someone to write his biography. John agrees out of desperation and gets quickly involved in this man's life and family. This is hard to put down and as always, excellent character development. You care about John and about so many of the other people in the story. I did figure out who the killer was as John was struggling to survive but even the very last sentence is gripping!!

This was a very enjoyable mystery. Instead of focusing on horse racing, like the other books I have read by Dick Francis, "Longshot "was set in the world of books, writing and literature, although the Vickers family were British horse-racing royalty. As usual, the hero, this time John Kendal, was quiet, resourceful, intelligent and very likeable. I also liked the local inspector Doone, with the Berkshire lilt, who was determined to solve the murders which were occurring in his area and Gareth, Tremayne Vickers' 15-year-old son. Both brought some humour to the novel. With a tight plot which included plenty of twists and an unexpected ending, "Longshot "was a fun whodunnit.

I really enjoy mysteries written by Dick Francis. They are always interesting and have fully developed characters, most of whom are likable, who are challenged to extend themselves. So far as I have read, there is always a tie-in to the British horse-racing scene. This is no different. A writer of survival travel guides accepts a commission to write a biography of a respected horse trainer. There's been a recent death by less-than-natural means. And there is the missing Angela, who once worked as a stable lad for a horse that was perhaps doped by feeding him chocolate.

In some ways the book's theme can be summed up by this passage: Through Nolan I began to understand how much more there was to riding races than fearlessness and being show more able to stay in the saddle. More than tactics, more than experience, more than ambition. Winning races, like survival, began in the mind.

If you like well-written mysteries, you will probably like this book. If you like horse racing or eventing and mysteries, this should be on your shelf! show less