Under Orders [Paperback]

I'm not going to give away any of the plot, but will go as far as describing some of it elements. This latest book contains aspects of infidelity, murder, race fixing, internet betting coupled with organized crime, expensive designer clothing, and DNA profiling. Quite alot for one book.

In addition, a Fleet Street newspaper called "The Pump" figures strongly into the plot with many pages focusing on Sid Halley's private life, which ultimately will offer pleasant surprise to most readers.

One enjoyable aspect of UNDER ORDERS is that jockeys, race horses, and horse racing in England in both specific and general are given attention as no recent Dick Francis has done. In some regard it seemed that his books were moving outside the actual world of racing to become novels using racing only as deep background. Not so in this latest book, the world of racing with all its elements once again moves front and center.

The overall "voice" of this book matches the previous ones, yet every once in awhile something different comes through. A new wind is blowing through this book, a wind that is very refreshing and now that Sid Halley's personal life has taken a new, joyous turn can another Sid Halley book be far behind?

Though the ending was somewhat less than I would have expected, I'm certain most readers of Dick Francis books will enjoy the book. The book marks a return to the reasons I began reading him in the first place. This book leaves the reader looking forward to subsequent books.

This book should be an enormous success for Dick Francis and pity the unfortunate reader who only reads Dick Francis in softcover, for he or she will have to wait several months more before they too can enjoy this new release from a master writer.

Semper Fi.

This just in: Look for a new hardcover mystery from Dick Francis in September, 2007. He and his son, Felix, have a brand new novel coming off the presses!!!

I discovered Dick Francis 26 years ago, and the first book I read was the first Sid Halley--Odds Against. Francis does a fine job of updating Sid, Charles, and the rest as men of the 21rst century. This is Francis's best book since Straight--and that's a mighty long time ago. It should be clear to all now just who was writing these books even if his wife, Mary, was his partner.

This is vintage Francis--characters are introduced in a paragraph early on in such a way that you really know them when their time comes to act, die, or be of use to Sid. The dry humor is there--the compassion, the wit, the wisdom. We've gone 5 long years with no Dick Francis novels, and 15 without a really, really good one. I just sank into it and got lost in the world of British racing as seen through the eyes of one of my favorite authors.

It's not for the uninitiated, though. There's plenty in the middle that is slow and personal--fans of Sid won't mind, but if folks haven't read Francis, this isn't the place to start. In truth, Francis reads especially well in order even though the majority of the books are stand-alones--the first five (Dead Cert, Nerve, For Kicks, Odds Against, and Flying Finish) are still my favorites.

Although I looked forward to this book like a child looks forward to Christmas, in the first few paragraphs alarm bells began going off ever so faintly. Having enjoyed all of Mr. Francis' books to date (several times, in fact, over the last several years), I have gotten to know Sid and Jenny and the Admiral quite well. On the first page, I noticed that the Admiral's last name has been given a "w" it never had before (not a typo, either, as "Roland" is misspelled throughout as "Rowland").
The alarm bells grew louder as I continued to read. With inexpressible dismay, I found that Mr. Francis' fine handling of scene and dialogue are gone. The interaction between characters is clumsy and overdone with none of the subtleties in dialogue and non-verbal cues that Francis' readers will be used to.
Moreover, Sid's personality is drastically different so that he is wearing his feelings on the outside (where he never would have done previously), and he painfully babbles through many of his spoken interchanges with other characters.
Jenny, too, has suffered a dramatic personality shift. She is unaccountably back to being bitchy with him (though they settled all that in the last book (Come To Grief). There is no expanation about why such a set-back may have occurred, and the jibes themselves are shallow and pointless. Then, in a blink, she is happy again, happy for him and delighted with the new girlfriend.
And the Admiral--all of his military bearing and his self discipline and his keen, unspoken understanding of events that Francis' readers will have come to know are gone. His behavior and speech and thought patterns were all jarringly off-key.
Archie Kirk, whom we met in Come To Grief, is a shadow of his former self with no depth of character, no discernible intelligence, no spark.
Of India Cathcart (the new girlfriend acquired at the end of the previous Sid adventure), there is no mention at all, nor any clue about what had become of her. The introduction to the new girlfriend is careless, imcomplete and utterly undeveloped--especially in light of how important to him she apparently has become. And, by the way, does anyone else wonder what became of the little girl with leukemia who was so central to the plot in Come To Grief? No tying up of that loose end, either.
The plot is workable but suffers greatly from its lack of development, too little depth in its details, and the loss of Francis' suspenseful unfolding, careful shading, and nuance.
Out of respect for Mr. Francis, I read to the end; but it was impossible to get lost in this creation (as one does in truly excellent writing) and I could find little of the pleasure that so readily found in all of his previous work.

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