Sun 26 Jan 2014
Reviewed by LJ Roberts: FELIX FRANCIS – Dick Francis’s Refusal.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[6] Comments
Reviews by L. J. Roberts
FELIX FRANCIS – Dick Francis’s Refusal. Putnam, hardcover, September 2013. Berkley, softcover, July 2014.
First Sentence: “No,†I said.
Sid Halley is married, a father, and six years retired from doing investigative work. Sir Richard Stewart approaches him asking that Sid look into race results that seem wrong. Although Sid is curious, he refuses but agrees to look over the information. However, the next day Sir Richard is found dead in his car of an apparent suicide and Sid receives a phone call, followed by escalating threats, demanding he sign a report of no wrong-doing … or else.
Having read every book written by Dick Francis, I knew I was starting with a bias. However, even distancing myself from that and trying to view this as a book from a completely different author, it did not help.
There were several major problems with this book. First, the characters. The two best characters were Charles and Chico. Sid’s wife was very poorly written. Even as a mother, worried about her child, she was overly strident and annoying. She did not convey as the type of woman Sid would have married.
Sid may have been retired for six years, but he came across as soft and insecure. Francis’s protagonists were known for their determination and doggedness. They didn’t give up, they never whined and they certainly would never have considered asking a policeman to break the law, or committing murder or blackmail.
The dialogue lacked a natural flow. I don’t know whether this was due to this being an “American†version — why do they do that? — rather than U.K, but it was choppy and somewhat painful.
On the plus side, there was fascinating information on the technological advancements in limb replacement, both with mechanical, and now, actual limb transplants. The plot did have some very good twists. Even when you think Francis has made an error, it’s lovely to discover he hasn’t.
Refusal isn’t a dreadful book, but it’s just not a very good one either. The biggest mistake was probably to resurrect Sid Halley, a character so well known and well loved by Dick Francis fans. I suspect that had one not read previous books, one would enjoy this far better than did I.
Rating: Poor.
January 27th, 2014 at 12:15 am
Don’t you mean that you’ve read every book by Dick Francis’ wife? Dick had little to do with them, apart from putting his name on the cover!
See, for example:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/dick-francis-thrillers-were-ghost-written-by-wife-743503.html
January 27th, 2014 at 12:55 am
For many years we have heard that Dick Francis’ wife researched the books, edited them, and help him plot and write them. He even said her name should be on the novels also.
However, I don’t see how we can bluntly state that she wrote them period, with little help from him. The proof that we need is not there yet. Yes, she had alot to do with the novels. That’s about all we can say until something else convinces us otherwise.
January 27th, 2014 at 4:55 pm
Many writers worked collaboratively with their spouse or some other family member, and it’s almost impossible to know who wrote what. I don’t really care if one of Dick Francis old horses wrote the books, a significant number of them were damn good and a few better than that.
I’ve heard it said Mildred Gordon contributed nothing to the Gordon’s but her name, but the books with his second wife aren’t up to the ones with Mildred for whatever reason. Richard Lockridge added something to his work whenever he put his wife’s name next to his.
Every writer has a different process, they are still arguing how much of Dumas, Dumas wrote, and married collaborators confuse the issue. When French spy novelist Jean Bruce died his ex-wife took over and Frederic Dard’s whole family made a cottage industry of the San Antonio series.
While there is no evidence of collaboration, Robert Louis Stevenson certainly wrote his greatest novels after meeting his wife and stepson (and later collaborator) Lloyd Osborne. She certainly influenced THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYL AND MR. HYDE since he allegedly destroyed the first draft because of her. Isabel Burton, in the worst act of literary assassination in history burned all his incomplete manuscripts.
Writing at any level becomes something of a project for everyone who lives with the writer including the family dog and cat. Writing is such an intimate act that naturally the people you are most intimate with influence you, aid you, or hinder you. Elleston Trevor’s son wrote a moving account of helping his father finish the last Quiller novel. Did age and drink determine the failure of Raymond Chandler’s PLAYBACK, or was it his dying wife Cissie?
I don’t know how much he does, but Dirk Cussler seems to have brought some freshness to his father’s books.
I haven’t read this one so I can’t comment, but the other books with Felix Francis after his father’s death have been good. Whether that means they had extensive outlines and notes by the mother or father and those are running out we can’t know. This sounds like a misstep, but it’s hard to say.
Did Georges Simenon’s wife and staff putting up with his obsessive seductions aide his work? Lilian Hellman seems to have had a detrimental effect on Hammett, but he might have declined without her. Ian Fleming created James Bond in part to escape the anxiety of a long time bachelor making his first marriage in his forties. Would we have had 007 without Lady Anne Fleming (who loathed him)?
Youngman Carter was a gifted artist, but he didn’t do much continuing Albert Campion for wife Margery Allingham, yet they obviously worked closely together when she was alive.
The point is just you can’t know unless there were some sort of record kept of every passage. Sounds like the basis for a really interesting literary study, but with no empirical evidence it would at best be anecdotal.
January 27th, 2014 at 5:38 pm
The thought that everyone living with a writer becomes part of the project is well observed. Add geography and climate, and the collaborator’s are all in place.
David you really took us through a lot of case histories. The Stevenson thing I thought warrants real study. Maybe they all do.
January 27th, 2014 at 7:13 pm
Barry
It is curious that Stevenson’s association with his wife and stepson leads immediately to his most famous book, TREASURE ISLAND. While his previous work showed talent and genius, none of it predicted what followed.
I know region is a major influence on many writers, and in that since community. Almost everything inspires you to write once you have the bug, but I suspect more writers collaborate to some extent with a spouse than would admit it.
There’s a famous story, probably apocryphal, about the writer who completed his new novel and left it sitting on top of his desk. Next morning when he comes in he sees a note on top of the ms from the housekeeper. “It’s not as good as your last one.”
It’s almost that bad.
January 28th, 2014 at 1:05 am
Yes, I have read every book written under the name of Dick Francis, up to the most recent after this. Frankly, I don’t honestly care whether Dick wrote them, or Mary, or their dog. All I know is that the early books gave me enormous reading pleasure.
Once I’d caught up by reading all those released in paperback, I started buying hard cover copies and, later, managed to final almost all of his books in signed copies, many of those first editions.
I was very sad when Dick passed away and didn’t mind the first couple released as a collaboration of Dick and Felix. However, I was tremendously disappointed in this book and determined it would be the last one I’d read. I am, however, very pleased to still have the early Dick Francis books on my shelves.