Blood Sport

English civil servant Gene Hawkins is supposed to be on vacation, but his boss needs his help. A friend of his, Dave Teller, is part owner of a racehorse that was stolen during transport in the U.S. This is the second horse Teller’s had stolen in the last three years. The suicidal Hawkins welcomes the distraction of the investigation, hoping it will keep him alive long enough to climb out of the deep depression he’s in. Gene teams up with insurance agent Walt and hops across the U.S., sometimes in Walt’s company and sometimes in the company of his boss’s teenage daughter, Lynnie.

While the suspense of the investigation kept me turning the pages, I never warmed up to Gene. I had a hard time buying his depression. Something about show more his voice didn’t quite ring true. Gene acknowledged what he was feeling, but not how or why. Francis always includes a romantic interest for his lead, and he really pushes the envelope here since she’s seventeen to Gene’s thirty-eight. He’s more than twice her age. It made me really uncomfortable, and it might be enough to put off some readers. show less

This was the best Dick Francis I've read so far. It grabbed me from the first to the last page.
It is about stallions that inexplicably disappear during transport and can no longer be found. If it weren't for Gene Hawkins, a secret agent who is looking for these stallions in the USA after the owner barely escaped death on a boat trip on the Thames.
With unorthodox methods and the help of the insurance agent, Hawkins sets out to find them. He soon realizes that he is dealing with an evil couple who do not stop at killing people.

Since this book was originally published in 1967, in many ways it seemed like a step back to a simpler time for me. A time with simple technologies, no sex, no cussing, and very mild violence. The story centers around the search for 3 missing breeding stallions, and it was made interesting even for someone who knows very little about the world of horse racing and breeding. Gene is also a rather unconventional leading man -- mysterious (you never quite find out what it is he actually does for work), severely depressed (over a woman?), and often suicidal. In many ways this book is as much about him and his emotional roller coaster as it is about the search for the horses. It sucked me in, and I was glad to go along for the ride. Also, for show more some reason I kept picturing Gene as Daniel Craig. I don't know if it was the British accent of the narrator or the fact that the first time you meet Gene he's pulling a gun out from under his pillow, which is a very Bond thing to do. show less

Blood Sport (1967) by Dick Francis is a hardboiled noir detective story set in the world of thoroughbred horse breeding. Gene Hawkins, who describes himself as a “civil servant,” is actually a counter-espionage agent. He sleeps with a pistol under his pillow. It has saved his life in the past, but it is also a focus for suicidal thoughts. Like Mel Gibson’s character in Richard Donner’s Lethal Weapon (1987), he uses his sense of duty to talk himself out of using the pistol on himself. When he goes on vacation, he becomes involved in tracking a pair of stolen stallions valued for their stud fees. Francis is an expert at blending drama, action, and setting details.

I always learn something from Dick Francis. Although the hero in this one isn't involved with horses, although he can ride, the mystery still involves horses. Gene Hawkins is competent at his spy-like job, but severely depressed. His mental illness comes close to crippling him at certain points, but he wins through in the end. Clever, although some of the connections were a little thin.

This one was a little darker than most of the Dick Francis books I've read thus far, but still a very good story. I never did understand exactly what the main character did for a living, but got the impression that Gene Hawkins was a bit of a corporate fixer. Hawkins is on holiday and is also increasingly depressed to the point of being suicidal when his boss asks him to take his vacation in the U.S. to look for a pair of valuable stud horses of his that had been shanghaied. A lot of twists and turns before this one is resolved, but there is a constant feel of melancholy about it.

A very weird story for Francis, in many ways. Though Gene does feel a bit like Halley. He's clinically depressed throughout the story, and goes ahead doing his job anyway, in his own sideways fashion. There's quite a lot about sex in here, without Francis' usual ease - also no actual sex, just talking/thinking about it. No comfortable agreements, just various strains of tension. The mystery is peculiar - a really roundabout scam - and Gene's solutions are almost as roundabout. Interesting story, but it will never be among my favorite Francises.