Even Money

June 29, 2009
The third collaboration between bestseller Francis and son Felix (after Silks
), a taut crime thriller, features an especially sympathetic hero. Bookmaker Ed Talbot is struggling with his wife's mental illness, even as technology threatens to give the big bookmaking outfits an insurmountable advantage over his small family business. Soon after a man shows up at Ascot and identifies himself as Ed's father, Peter, whom Ed believed long dead, a thug demanding money stabs Peter to death. Ed is in for even more shocks when he learns his father was the prime suspect in his mother's murder—and that Peter's killing, rather than a random act of violence, may be linked to a mysterious electronic device used in some horse-racing fraud. Ed must juggle his amateur investigations into past and present crimes with his demanding family responsibilities. Though some readers may find the ending overly pat, the authors make bookmaking intelligible while easily integrating it into the plot.

Starred review from July 15, 2009
The father-and-son Francis team (Silks, 2008, etc.) turn their attention to the most reviled members of the horse-racing fraternity: on-site bookmakers.

"My clients were never my friends," wryly observes Ned Talbot. Of course they aren't, since in the zero-sum game of bookmaking, Ned's earnings depend on their losses. Now someone is changing the rules of that game. Luca Mandini, Ned's assistant, reports that Internet and mobile-phone connections have gone down all over Ascot during crucial minutes when bookmakers have tried to lay off bets against favorites in order to reduce the money they'll have to pay out. More urgently, a stranger who identifies himself as Ned's father—a man his grandparents told him was killed in a car crash 36 years ago—is killed for good, stabbed to death in front of Ned's eyes an hour after they meet. Peter Talbot leaves his newfound son a disturbing legacy. A rucksack Ned recovers from his father's hotel room is hotly pursued by several unsavory and violent characters. Peter's return from Australia reopens painful questions about the death of his wife—questions whose answers are locked in the Alzheimer's-stricken brain of Ned's aged Nanna. Ned worries that telling his wife Sophia about these latest developments may produce a crisis in her bipolar disorder and condemn her to endless incarceration in the hospital. Meanwhile, a major bookmaker backed by a pair of bullyboys is bent on driving Ned out of business.

A blissfully satisfying blend of suspense, revenge and horse-racing info in a multilayered mystery that's presumably Felix Francis's distinctive contribution to his father's legendary series.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 29, 2009
Racetrack bookmaker Ned Talbot learned his trade from his grandfather, who raised him after Ned's parents were killed in a car crash. At the Royal Ascot races, a man introduces himself to Ned, claiming to be his long-dead father. Before Ned can sort out his feelings, a hooded man knocks Ned down and stabs the man to death. The police inform Ned that his father was wanted for the murder of Ned's mother. His simple life has suddenly become very complicated: he must delve into his family's secrets while eluding the unknown assailant. Verdict This third father-and-son coauthored novel (after Silks and Dead Heat) will appeal to mystery lovers and Francis fans who like a suspenseful story with an upbeat ending; however, readers who enjoyed the horse-racing details in Dick Francis's Sid Halley novels may be disappointed to find little about horses here. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 4/1/09.]-Patsy Gray, Huntsville P.L., AL

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2009
Dick Francis moved from a string of detective heroes who were steeplechase jockeys, as he himself once was before he broke his collarbone one too many times, to a wide range of characters somehow connected to the fascinating culture and subcultures of the racetrack: a movie actor, a TV journalist, a horse trader, and, most recently, in last years Silks, a barrister and amateur jockey. Now Francis, writing with his son, Felix, shines the spotlight on the pariah of the British trackthe lowly bookie. Ned Talbot, an independent bookmaker, is well aware of the contempt in which even the bettors hold bookies. But his position gives him, as always with Francis heroes, an intriguing perspective on racetrack goings-on. Several of Francis mysteries open with a death on the trackthis one begins with one just off the track on the first day of Ascot Races. A man claiming to be the father Ned thought had died in a car crash with his mother long ago accosts Ned at his stand. As they walk to the car park just after the raceNed filled with doubts and angeran attacker stabs his would-be father to death. Ned soon finds himself embroiled in two mysteries, as the police reveal to him that his father has been wanted in the death of Neds mother for 36 years. And whoever wanted Neds father removed also wants to kill Ned. Francis again delivers stunning plotting, a vivid setting, and crisp characterization.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)