Decider [Paperback]

When our hero is forced to become involved in the affairs of a racecourse that he owns 8% of, and thus is ensnared in the VERY unpleasant lives of the Stratton family, who own most of the rest of the course, he finds himself in repeated mortal danger.

The book is a bit more "cinematic" than most, with big explosions and some fires, rather than Francis' usual knock on the back of the head into unconsciousness. The book has further charm because this hero is the parent of young children, something Francis has seldom offered us before, and never in such generous quantities. As always, his character is well-versed in his chosen profession, showing that Francis has done his homework well.

The plot is a humdinger, but I find that the Stratton family is SO full of truly VILE people that they become too 1 dimensional, like villains in an old-fashioned melodrama. Their actions are often so violent and hate-riddled that they are a bit difficult to believe.

But that being said, this is another fine, quick, enjoyable read in the amazingly large and outstanding body of work produced by Dick Francis. I recommend it to fans and newbies alike!

An ambitious book. With eight Strattons, six Morris kids, and a host of other characters, Francis is generally successful in creating individual characters (though some of the younger Strattons tend to blend as hostile faces in your mind)

A few quibbles. To a certain extent, Francis stuck to his formula in this book. In almost all of Francis later books, Francis's hero (always a pleasant fellow in his thirties whom people just love to talk to) gets beat up about halfway through the book, and, in the climactic scene, would do credit to the hero of an action movie.

Quite good, but not as good as his early books.

However, I was concerned with a couple things here. First of all, the villains here are so nasty and one-dimensionable that they end up being cartoonish, and I think that detracts from the strength of the rest of the plt, which is pretty good. Also, I am concerned with the hero's wife, who apparently is rather consistently unhappy and does not appreciate him as a husband and father, both of which he seems to be pretty admirable at. She is a frustrating character. I also found it rather frustrating and somewhat demeaning that Francis felt the need to come up with another romantic interest here, when I think his main character has quite enough issues to resolve already with wife and family. The romantic interest here, in apperance a younger version of the wife, is superfluous.

Please don't get me all wrong here--I genuinely love Dick Francis, and this read well and is fun, but I expect and usually get more from him!