Crisis and Straight

Reviewed by Dave Kern, Feb. 1, 2021

The Francis Franchise: Comparing authors Dick and Felix

I recently finished watching four seasons of TV’s “The Crown.” There were scenes of the Queen, Princess Margaret and Princess Anne on horseback. That took me back decades, to when I enjoyed thrillers by Dick Francis, which center on the love of horse racing in England.

When Dick Francis died in 2010, The Guardian described him as an “international bestselling writer, the author of 42 crime novels, selling more than 60 m(illion) copies in 35 languages. Right from the start, with ‘Dead Cert’ in 1962, the Dick Francis thriller showed a mastery of lean, witty genre prose reminiscent – sometimes to the point of comic parody – of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.”

Before turning to writing, Francis was a celebrated champion steeplechase jockey.

So, I decided to try another Francis novel. Why not compare father to son, I thought, as Felix Francis helped his father on several books and has written 10 of his own.

“Crisis"
By Felix Francis, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2018, 372 pages

Our lead character is a London lawyer who works for a crisis-management firm.

A promising racehorse has died along with six other colts in a barn fire at a well-known racing stable. Prince of Troy was considered a sure-thing at the Derby Stakes.

Representing the owner of Prince of Troy, the lawyer is sent to Newmarket to investigate.

The father, who owns the stable, and his three sons are luminaries in the horse community.

The fire investigation reveals a human died in the fire.

A romance blossoms between the lawyer and a woman in the horse-breeding industry.

Our lead character finds himself a target of would-be murderers.

Felix Francis takes us inside the horse-racing industry. And there is the excitement of being at the track.

“Straight,”
By Dick Francis, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1989, 323 pages

Our story is told by a “jump jockey” who is a frequent winner in steeplechase races. He has just been injured after being thrown from his mount, and is on crutches.

His brother has died in an accident, and he must see to the gemstone-retail business his brother owned in London.

The reader learns a great deal about gemstones, even their chemical names.

There are lost diamonds, thieves, attempts to kill the jockey, a dash of romance and the business of buying and selling horses.

The comparison

I thought “Straight” moved more slowly than “Crisis.”

Both books were easy, fun reads. It was nice to “return” to England.