Forfeit

Fleet Street sportswriter James Tyrone accepts a commission to write a feature story for a magazine about the upcoming Lamplighter race. Ty is the last person to speak to a sports columnist for a rival paper before he falls to his death from his office window. Ty notices connections between the dead man’s recent columns and the outcomes of races that have to be more than coincidence. His pursuit of this story leads him into danger that threatens not just his own life but also the life of his exceptionally vulnerable wife.

In Ty, Francis gives his readers a hero with feet of clay. Ty has considerable demands on his time and money that force him to make moral decisions much more often than the average person has to do. He’s not always show more able to withstand little temptations, but he holds firm when it counts the most. I suspect that Ty won’t be my favorite Francis hero, but he may well be the most memorable for me. show less

I am rating this book rather highly "even though" it is formula fiction, even though you know a lot of things before you even set out: it won't be gory or disgusting or terrifying; the protagonist will be beaten up at least once; he will be a nice, unimposing guy who resists being pushed around; there will be a happy ending.

Is it bad to know these things in advance? I don't think so. They are part of why I keep returning to these books even though (there's that phrase again) they are not in a genre I normally enjoy.

Richard and Mary Francis (aka Dick Francis) thought carefully about their characters--not only about the details of their jobs and the physical world they occupy, but their relationships with other people, their self-doubts, show more hiccups in their personalities. They care about their protagonists and they describe a world in which terrible things can happen but which is peopled by and large by likeable or at least non-evil humans beings, many of whom deserve a better shake than they are getting. Secondary characters, while not always fully rounded, often are intriguing on their own merit and we watch their fates with interest and concern. And book by book the reader acquires a nicely rounded view of the racing world and the various occupations that are involved in it.

The authors are aware of the fact that beatings and murder aren't the worst things that can assail us. Crippling illness, anger and self doubt are sensitively dealt with, and characters are not only treated with compassion (in the midst of chaos) but are often invited to be bigger than they begin.

In Forfeit, James Tyrone faces danger and mystery, but he also faces his complex emotions around his wife, to whom he is devoted, and about his own behaviour. This one is a keeper.

I read the Francises when I want to put my mental feet up and be entertained with good writing, good pacing, good characterization, and thoughtful prose. There is a touch of humour and more than a touch of humanity in these misleadingly packaged novels.

Bravo and brava! Happy reading. show less

They say third time is the charm, but in Dick Francis's case it was fourth time. He had been nominated for the Edgar for Best Novel in each of the three preceding years before finally winning it with FORFEIT in 1970. Getting the last laugh, he went on to win it twice more and became a Grand Master in 1996.

This was the first of his books I have read. I tend to go for series books, am not immediately attracted to thrillers, and follow horseracing only if invited to a Derby Day party, so I hadn't thought I would like them. Now, having read FORFEIT, I'll be much more likely to pick up the next Francis book I see.

FORFEIT's protagonist, James Tyrone, is a journalist -- he writes a racing column for a somewhat sensational newspaper and does show more occasional free-lance work for magazines. When a colleague from another paper commits suicide, after giving Tyrone a mysterious piece of advice, and Tyrone realizes something odd about horses the dead man has touted in his columns, he begins asking questions. This sets him on a collision course with a sinister South African that imperils not only his own life, but that of his wife. Of course, it also gets his paper a hell of a story.

What little I know about American horseracing was of no use here, as the British system of betting is different and there are also different kinds of races there (pretty exciting ones too, it would seem). But enough was explained (and without recourse to footnotes!) that I was easily able to follow the story.

I read recently that in a thriller, you know fairly soon who the villain is and the excitement is in the race between villain and hero to accomplish or prevent the villain's plans (wildly paraphrasing here). That is a good description of this book. Given the conventions of crime fiction, one is 99% sure that good will win out, but Francis keeps us on the edge with that 1% of uncertainty. There are books you can't put down, and then there are those which I, at least, must put down -- something so frightening happens that I must stop to catch my breath and let my heart rate return to normal. This was such a book.

My husband, who has been reading these Edgar winners along with me, said about Julian Symons' THE PROGRESS OF A CRIME that one mark of a good writer was the care he takes with minor characters. I couldn't see it in that book because I just disliked the whole book so much. But I could really see the truth of it in FORFEIT. The horse trainer, the young woman groom, the jockey, the racing steward, the horse breeder and his family -- each has a story, and we hear it, without detracting at all from the fast-moving plot.

So if, like me, you thought you wouldn't be interested in a book about horseracing, think again and read a Dick Francis book. He's been doing fine without me all these years, the only loss has been mine. show less

Dick Francis was quoted as saying that Forfeit was one of his favorite books, and I can't see why. Along with the general plot his readers expect regarding skullduggery in the horse racing realm and an ordinary man placed in the extraordinary circumstances of needing to do something about it, we also have our lead character, James Tyrone, caught in a tragic personal situation from which there is no satisfactory escape. The story's mood alternates between exciting and poignant, and is excellent, if not happy.

Racing reporter James Tyrone discovers a cheating bookmaker who makes money through hyping horses and then preventing them from running. Ty takes extraordinary measures to protect the latest horse in the string and his wife, crippled from polio. Ty's relationship with his wife -- complicated by a guilt-ridden affair with the biracial Gail -- and the minute depiction of their domestic economy are truly touching. I always think of Francis as adding sex to his books much later, and reluctantly (I envision his publisher saying, "Dick, horses running around in circles is all very well, but can't you throw in a few naked girls?"), but here he tackles the subject with some frankness and without the embarrassment that seems to characterize show more later efforts. show less

Not as easy a like as many [[Dick Francis]]'s mysteries, the people in this novel are under some pretty sever limitations. Ty works at a scandal sheet because the money is needed to pay for help caring for a paralyzed wife, and the young woman he meets Gail, has to work within boundaries she encounters because of her mixed race parentage and her requirement for financial rewards. The story is well done and very hard to forget.

Sportswriter James Tyrone writes about horse racing. But something odd is happening with fellow race writer Bert Checkov – whenever Bert touts a horse, the horse loses badly or fails to show up for the race. Bert drunkenly confesses to Ty that he has sold his soul; and then falls to his death out of a seventh story window.

Ty discovers there is a rigged betting scheme and the bad guys expect Ty to be the next one to fall in line. Not only does he resist, but he must protect his paralyzed wife from murder and mayhem from people who will literally stop at nothing. And then there’s the lovely Gail, whom Ty is falling in love with, although he knows he can never leave his wife.

Ty is a conflicted and complicated protagonist. Like many of show more Francis’s main characters he has a heroic moral sense along with intelligence and physical strength to win through solving the mystery and a beating or three. In this one we see the character’s more human side as he wrestles with the moral dilemma of choosing between his beloved paralyzed wife and a woman who could be lover, companion and equal. show less