EVEN MONEY
Dick Francis and Felix Francis
Putnam Adult
Mystery
ISBN: 9780399155918
Bookmakers beware: Dick Francis and Felix Francis are providing lots of inside information about your operations. There is even a chart of bookmakers’ odds as used on British racecourses. This dynamic writing team has hit the big money yet again with their latest quick-paced read.
“I pulled my wallet out of my trouser pocket and extracted the creased picture of my parents taken at Blackpool. All my life I had looked at that picture and longed to be able to be with my father. It was his image that had dominated my existence rather than that of my mother.” Ned Talbot does things the old way, the honest way. He isn’t one of the “big boys” in bookmaking; he works hard and makes enough money to lead an average life.
But one average day at the Royal Ascot, things change for Ned. His past comes back to haunt him in very real ways. The reappearance of his father, Peter, starts a series of events in which Ned’s life is taken very far afield from his everyday existence. His father has secrets, each of which will put Ned’s life in jeopardy. Every family has secrets, but in Ned’s, they are certainly stranger and deadlier.
Where there is money to be made, and temptations reign, there will be murder and corruption, at least in Dick and Felix Francis mysteries. These are always fun reads, whether you are knowledgeable in racing terminology or a novice. In EVEN MONEY, we are schooled on “ringers,” horses that are replaced by inferior ones. The substituted horses will pay better at higher odds since they are expected to lose. “But running a ringer has always been more difficult than most people believe, especially from a large, well-established training stable, and not only because horse identification has become more sophisticated with the introduction of the RFID chips.” If someone were able to recode the chips with a new number, any horse could have the number assigned to any other horse. It would turn horseracing on its ear. Another reason to substitute good runners for bad ones is to collect insurance money when foul play is afoot.
The main theme in EVEN MONEY is the murder of Ned’s father on the very day they met. The events that follow answer many questions about the kind of man Peter was. The secondary theme involves British racing and bookmaking, and its evolution. It is an ever-evolving science, one that has great potential for corruption and profit. Hence, the reputation of most “bookies” or bookmakers is not the highest. When you take these themes and put them together, you are left with a tightly knit plot. Horseracing is a complex business where profit is foremost. When combined with unscrupulous people, there can be evil results. All in all, this is one of the best Dick Francis novels of his 45 efforts, and the third with his youngest son, Felix.
--- Reviewed by Marge Fletcher
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