Silks [Paperback]

I was very excited when I found that this book was coming out. Since Dick Francis seemed to have stopped writing for a time, before the release of his last book written with his son, Dead Heat, I made sure that this was not a reprint.

I also made sure that I had plenty of free time, because once I pick up one of his books, I can't put it down! This one did not disappoint me.

As with his other books, the setting takes place in London and little towns nearby that feature racetracks. This story centers around the English legal system, which is fascinating to me. It has the usual main character who is a nice bloke (Geoffrey Mason) but has had some bad things happen to him. He also finds a new love interest, and fights the good fight against the evil bad guy, and good wins out in the end.

When I read this book, I felt like I was there, in the little town that was described, and that I could feel the feelings that the characters were feeling.

Even though this book stuck to Dick Francis' typical plot, it felt fresh and entertaining to me. I was actually smiling at the end, and it takes a good book to do that for me.

If you are a Dick Francis fan, I would definitely purchase this book. And, I am very happy to report that Mr. Francis' son, Felix, seems to be fully capable of having the reigns turned over to him when it becomes necessary.

_Silks_ is a mid-range Dick Francis novel. It delivers the usual pleasures of Dick Francis novels: a racing background, a sympathetic protagonist, a scary villain, a little romance, and an interesting backdrop. As a long-time Francis fan, I was glad to get it and enjoyed reading it. Much as I'd like to, however, I can't give it more than three stars. It has an excellent start, and a good finish, but it lags in the middle.

It doesn't take long for Geoffrey Mason, our hero, to get into frighteningly credible hot water. That's good--but then he takes an awfully long time to do anything effective about it. The middle part of the book fails to build on itself. In a thriller/mystery tale like this one, the protagonist should always be getting more information, getting closer to the bad guys, using what he's learned to push one step further. The antagonist, meanwhile, should always be expanding the scope of his nefarious doings, upping the threat level, reacting to the hero.

Neither of those things happens very much in _Silks_. Mason goes down a lot of blind alleys, and fails to uncover many new facts during his rather desultory investigations. Ultimately, he gets the information he needs via a phone call from a third party. The villain, in turn, simply repeats his original threats over and over. (Part of the trouble is that the villain, when uncovered, turns out to be a somewhat peripheral character.)

Finally, because there's no chain of revelations, Francis & Francis have to rely on a gimmick to inject surprise. In a typical mystery, we readers know what the investigator has *seen*, but not what he *thinks*. Here, Mason explains everything to the other characters in the book--but not to us. Censoring the information given to the reader is one of the weakest of authorial tricks, and in this case it happens several times.

The best part of _Silks_ is Julian Trent, the brutal thug whose trial sparks the whole chain of events. Intimidation in the justice system is a very real problem, and it's all too easy to imagine ourselves in Geoffrey Mason's situation. _Silks_ is very effective in showing how fragile that system really is.

It also delivers a good courtroom drama sequence. This has been done so often that it's something of a cliche. The Francises make this old standard deliver by actually giving an insight into a trial lawyer's mind; we get some understanding of Mason's tactics, his strategies, his worries, his analysis. The effect is to make the legal proceedings less of a circus and more of a high-stakes chess game. (It's also an amusing contrast for anyone who's a fan of Rumpole of the Bailey!)

If you're a long-time Francis fan, you'll probably enjoy _Silks_. Spending time in Francis territory is rather like visiting an old and familiar place: even if things aren't quite the way you remember, it's a pleasure to be among friends. If you're relatively new to Francis, however, you might want to start with one of his top-notch classics--_Risk_ is a personal favorite--where the pacing isn't quite so lax.

In this book Dick Francis returns to his roots and to a type of hero who was featured in many of his early mysteries: the amateur jockey. Geoffrey Mason is a barrister who someday hopes to attain the silken robes of a Queen's Counsel. In the meantime, he represents thugs like Julian Trent and rides in races a few times a year on his own horse. Things take a dismaying turn when Trent gets out on appeal because someone tampered with a jury.

The racing scenes have all the pulse pounding appeal of vintage Francis. The intricacies of British law are clearly portrayed. Even the graphic violence is not new to Dick Francis mysteries. Actually there is less violence then some classic Francis mysteries such as BONE CRACK, but in this book they seem more shocking, partly because his hero seems "softer" than some of the tough guys of yore. As in the previous book co-authored by Dick Frances and his son Felix DEAD HEAT, the hero is not a jock who takes his licks and keeps on kicking. Geoffrey Mason is easily moved to tears since the death of his wife and at first, he seems intimidated by the violence that is meant to move him along a certain course. He grows as a character throughout the novel until he becomes capable of taking the climatic action in the final pages. Riveting! Remarkable! Perhaps not recommended for the cozy, tea-drinking set...

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