marvgraff

We had a hunch that the first solo effort by son Felix to write a “Dick Francis” novel would turn out OK, given that undoubtedly he bore the lion’s share of the work on the last several official collaborations with his dad. And like the whole world, we could hardly wait to see if “Gamble” would hold up to the unusual scrutiny so often applied to the next book in a series not written by the original author. To us, it’s a very commendable job! A retired jockey, Nick Foxton, now a financial advisor at an investment firm, has taken a colleague to the horse races – and as he stands aside him, his friend is murdered in broad daylight, with none of the thousands nearby seeing the shooter. Nick takes it upon himself to look into the how and why, and soon discovers a potentially serious scam in which one of his firm’s partners might well be involved that was probably a motive in the killing of his co-worker. While looking into his friend’s effects (after he learns he’s the executor of the estate), he eventually starts to unravel some sort of internet gambling scheme. Soon enough, it’s Nick who becomes the target of violence when his snooping starts getting too close to the bone. His mother, fiancé, and several of his friends are nearly involved before the bad guys come to light – but who will get who first? To be direct, we enjoyed this story and would be hard-pressed to even quibble over aspects that might or might not fit into the old Francis mode. In Nick Foxton, we have the type of protagonist nearly all these books feature – basically a nice smart guy we’d all like to emulate, in a suspenseful enough tale that made us want to race to the end. Plenty good enough for us – bring on some more!

2020-08-10 17:27