Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best of Francis' efforts, Jan 21 2004
Whip Hand takes us down another mystery road with Sid Halley again. You can actually read this before you read Odds Against, as I did, and still keep up with the goings on.
The reason that this is one of the best books by Dick Francis is that he keeps to his nice formula of the underrated guy kicking the bad-guys' trash because he is just tough and sharp as nails; but in addition to his formula, Francis takes us deep into Sid's character and shows us a guy we love. We root for him more than any other Francis character because we know him better and can see some of ourselves in him. The plot as always is clean with some neat twists. This is another entertaining and relatively satisfying title from an author who has mastered his art.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Francis redeems himself..., Aug 28 2003
Last year, someone gave me my first Dick Francis to read, 10 LB. Penalty, which can best be described as horrid. I couldn't believe that someone as prolific as Dick Francis could sell so many books if they were of this caliber. This summer, my same friend gave me a big bag of mysteries to read, and I planned to skip Whip Hand. But as luck would have it, I ran out of books before I ran out of summer and Whip Hand was the only one left. Was I pleasantly surprised! In fact, this turned out to be the best mystery I have read all summer. The main character is Sid Halley, an ex-jockey turned PI whose small stature belies all the hidden baggage beneath. He also brings the same passion to win that he had as a jockey to his investigations. Halley has three separate mysteries dumped on him: a mail fraud, a syndicate fixing and racehorse tampering. The racehorse tampering was especially timely after spending some time in Versailles Kentucky this summer, site of the tragic and still unsolved horse tampering case. Not to give the story away, but this book is filled with action, drama, suspense, believable characters, just a little romance, and a plot that will have you guessing until the very end. Next time I receive a Dick Francis book, I will be a little more anxious to begin reading!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
What is it about Francis?, Dec 3 2001
As a general rule, I am a Sci-Fi person first, Fantasy second, Political Thrillers third, and the rest rarely makes my reading list. But someone handed me a Dick Francis mystery a year ago and I couldn't put it down. Since then I've read (or listened to) more than a dozen, and they're all fabulous. As was mentioned by another reviewer, these are definately formula books: he writes essentially the same character every time, and all the plots involve horse racing at least peripherally. And of course our hero (a blindlingly inteligent, 30-something, self-assured, and intensely private male) nearly always starts lonely and ends with the prospect of happy permanent female companionship. Nevertheless, they're still very much worth reading, probably for the same reason Tom Clancy is worth reading: the effort and research Francis puts into the details. In Whip Hand one gets to learn not only about the mechanics of false hands but also some nuts and bolts about vaccination and horse disease, some high points of hot-air balloon racing, and how a horse ownership syndicate works.
Even more importantly for Whip Hand, Francis really threw his heart and soul into Sid Haley, who is hands down (no pun intended) his best character ever. There's a depth to him - his strengths, weaknesses, the double-edged sword of his pride, and his vulnerability that is thought provoking and ultimately endearing - I ended the book more than 1/2 in love with him. :)
To sum up, Whip Hand is Well worth the read, whatever your typical genre and whatever your feelings about horses.
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