Wed 11 Nov 2009
DICK FRANCIS – Shattered (2000). Michael Joseph Ltd., UK, hardcover, 2000; Putnam, US, hc, 2000. Several reprint editions.
I’ve had a hiatus in my reading of Dick Francis’s oeuvre, longer than the one he took after this book. (His next book, Under Orders, didn’t appear until 2006.)
The narrator, Gerard Logan, has a small but select business blowing glass, small pieces that sell to tourists in his Broadway (that’s the Cotswold village, not the New York theatre — or should that be theatre-district) shop, and larger pieces that sell as high priced art.
Logan is best friends with a jump jockey who dies in a racing accident but has asked someone to pass a video tape to Logan for safe keeping. The video tape, which goes missing, is the McGuffin sought by a group of crooks who assault Logan in trying to locate it. Logan has to find the tape and identify the thugs and in typical Francis-hero fashion does so by putting his own body on the line.
I’ve enjoyed Francis over the years but this was one of the least enjoyable books. I like to like my heroes — a weakness, I know — but Logan came over to me as arrogant, and plot was straight from a join-the-dots puzzle.
Read this if you’re a Francis completist, but if you haven’t read him, seek out his earlier books like Blood Sport or Enquiry. Of course I won’t be able to resist Under Orders and the following three (the third was published in September) written with his son.
(Department of coincidences: In the final scene of the book Logan goes to the apartment of the policewoman girl-friend he has acquired during the course of the book. There he finds the place stocked with memorabilia from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.)
November 11th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Most of Francis books were written with his wife, and as she became ill there was a little fall off in quality. Since he has been writing with his son Felix the books have bounced back and he is in close to his old form — even bringing Sid Halley back one more time.
The remarkable thing about his books is that despite his use of the first person voice and the horse racing background he has managed to be so varied and inventive. No two Francis narrators really sound that much alike and yet his style is distinctive and instantly recognized.
I admit I don’t always grab up the new Francis as I once did, but I always end up reading them, and I’m always glad I did. I hate to admit it, but he is so consistently reliable and good I take him for granted rather than heaping the praise on him that he deserves. I can think of no one else anywhere near his output as consistent as he is who has also continued to be able to pull rabbits out of his hat at this stage in his career.
November 11th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
David, I think that you’re right about mystery fans taking older writers like Dick Francis for granted. Book after book, year after year, and then before we realize it, they’re gone.
I’d rather be reading their work while they’re still around, and to that end, I’ll start reading one of Dick Francis’s most recent books tonight.
I have the latest P. D. James waiting for me too, and I’ll read that next.
The new guys will simply have to wait a book or two before I get to them — but I will.