Dick Francis's Damage

I am a big fan of the Francis family of writers, both the late Dick & Mary, and the son of two who writes, Felix. The last Francis outing I truly enjoyed was Dead Heat. Dead Heat was published in 2008, just two years prior to Dick Francis' death. Felix and Dick collaborate on the book, and Dick's main collaborator, his wife Mary, passed away eight years' before, so she was not involved unless before the fact.

I would think Felix the driving force behind Dead Heat, but Felix helmed Damage solo, because it was published in 2014, two years after Dick's passing at the age of 89. Damage has two plot threads, one major, and one, a “minor” complement, but while the minor piece was somewhat awkward and disturbing in content, I found it to be a bit more rewarding than the key plot surrounding horseracing.

As I reserched this review, I realized that Damage was the maiden voyage of the Jefferson Hinkley series, and that having enjoyed Front Runner a lot, knowing now that it was outing segundo, it makes sense that Francis was developing his key players. Lydia, Quentin, Faye and Kenneth are all very interesting to read about, whereas the BHA elements slighly less so.

Maybe I am getting to be more of a sentimentalist as I get older. Still, the sequel, Front Runner was exciting, and not just for the family plot. Further, I read the preview for Francis' Guilty, Not Guilty, and it looks to be very good, indeed. I hope I'm not being too critical of Damage. Francis' writing is good. I think maybe he just took a little long getting to the great denouement without shifting gears a whole lot.

That occured with his dad's books now and then, with his dad being one of the greats.