Feel free to ignore any recommendations which you have already read or bounced off. In publishing order, because that was easiest to pull off the internet, novels by Dick Francis which I especially enjoy include—
For Kicks (1965). I have never been able to persuade myself to believe the romance and the ending escalates slightly too far into wish-fulfillment for me not to find it unintentionally funny, but I really enjoy the conceit of the protagonist having to camouflage his natural courage and competence in order to go successfully undercover at a stable that only hires dodgy, disgraced, desperate types, so that much of the tension comes not just from the twists and turns of the detection but the fact that it is really very difficult to do things badly if you have been practiced to do them well.
Smokescreen (1972). Described above. The film stuff is also well-handled and I can totally see the movie the protagonist is supposed to be making as an actual product of the early '70's.
Whip Hand (1979). Francis wrote almost no series characters except for Sid Halley, who featured in four novels; this is the second. It benefits from being read after Odds Against (1965), but I return to it more often than its predecessor because it is so much about aftermath—Sid was permanently disabled in the course of the first novel and is now living with the reality of his disability, which he's just about got worked out physically as the second novel opens and psychologically is nowhere near reconciled to. The problem doesn't have a facile solution, but the last line is a beauty. It took me years to notice that the central mystery is elegantly on-theme.
Reflex (1980). I have been known to call this one my favorite Dick Francis. The thriller plot and the emotional plot are especially well-aligned in that the protagonist who was taught by his uncertain childhood to accept whatever came his way and make the best of it now finds himself in more than one situation which will require him to consider the possibility that actually he wants things and then figure out what he's going to do about it. I like him as a character as well as an arc and I like how his photography is written. I like the love interest who works in publishing and is unpretentiously accustomed to being the smartest person in the room. I like the second male lead who works as a solicitor and is somewhat more disguisedly accustomed to being the smartest person in the room. I understand that for whatever reason the quantity of Dick Francis on AO3 is tragically small, but I remain disappointed that no one to my knowledge has ever written fic for this novel, since I can't read these people as anything other than an OT3—the solicitor functions narratively as the damsel in distress—and I would have cheerfully read as many novels about them as Francis actually wrote about Sid Halley.
Proof (1984). On the one hand, I can never remember what happens in this one; on the other, I always remember that it makes me care about wine.
Hot Money (1987). While not strictly a comedy, the plot of this novel requires the protagonist to investigate his dysfunctional kazillion half-siblings from the multiple marriages and affairs of his serially virile father and with all apologies to the seriousness of the denouement, that's hilarious.
The Edge (1988). All you really need to know about this one is that it's set on a cross-Canada train where the protagonist is working as a waiter for a murder mystery show; there is a racing connection, but there is a lot more dinner theater, and it's delightful.
Straight (1989). In terms of the moment-to-moment technique that started this conversation, it is relevant that the protagonist spends the entire novel on crutches and it accurately affects not just the action scenes but the daily minutiae of his life. The plot is a more or less literal treasure hunt involving a lot of late-'80's technology and is fondly fixed in my memory despite my near-total inability to remember the particulars of any of the tech.
To the Hilt (1996). I have no explanation for this novel except the combined id of Richard and Mary Francis, even more so than usual. The protagonist is baroquely tortured and the character who reads most naturally as the love interest is a fabulously competent cross-dressing PI whom even the protagonist's sort-of-ex-wife ships with him. The protagonist also paints golf scenes. There's a museum feud. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when last I checked it was the one novel out of the Francis oeuvre that had actually attracted an AO3 fandom. Personally I await the kdrama.
I am sure I have forgotten something and will return to this thread when it returns to me.
no subject
Feel free to ignore any recommendations which you have already read or bounced off. In publishing order, because that was easiest to pull off the internet, novels by Dick Francis which I especially enjoy include—
For Kicks (1965). I have never been able to persuade myself to believe the romance and the ending escalates slightly too far into wish-fulfillment for me not to find it unintentionally funny, but I really enjoy the conceit of the protagonist having to camouflage his natural courage and competence in order to go successfully undercover at a stable that only hires dodgy, disgraced, desperate types, so that much of the tension comes not just from the twists and turns of the detection but the fact that it is really very difficult to do things badly if you have been practiced to do them well.
Smokescreen (1972). Described above. The film stuff is also well-handled and I can totally see the movie the protagonist is supposed to be making as an actual product of the early '70's.
Whip Hand (1979). Francis wrote almost no series characters except for Sid Halley, who featured in four novels; this is the second. It benefits from being read after Odds Against (1965), but I return to it more often than its predecessor because it is so much about aftermath—Sid was permanently disabled in the course of the first novel and is now living with the reality of his disability, which he's just about got worked out physically as the second novel opens and psychologically is nowhere near reconciled to. The problem doesn't have a facile solution, but the last line is a beauty. It took me years to notice that the central mystery is elegantly on-theme.
Reflex (1980). I have been known to call this one my favorite Dick Francis. The thriller plot and the emotional plot are especially well-aligned in that the protagonist who was taught by his uncertain childhood to accept whatever came his way and make the best of it now finds himself in more than one situation which will require him to consider the possibility that actually he wants things and then figure out what he's going to do about it. I like him as a character as well as an arc and I like how his photography is written. I like the love interest who works in publishing and is unpretentiously accustomed to being the smartest person in the room. I like the second male lead who works as a solicitor and is somewhat more disguisedly accustomed to being the smartest person in the room. I understand that for whatever reason the quantity of Dick Francis on AO3 is tragically small, but I remain disappointed that no one to my knowledge has ever written fic for this novel, since I can't read these people as anything other than an OT3—the solicitor functions narratively as the damsel in distress—and I would have cheerfully read as many novels about them as Francis actually wrote about Sid Halley.
Proof (1984). On the one hand, I can never remember what happens in this one; on the other, I always remember that it makes me care about wine.
Hot Money (1987). While not strictly a comedy, the plot of this novel requires the protagonist to investigate his dysfunctional kazillion half-siblings from the multiple marriages and affairs of his serially virile father and with all apologies to the seriousness of the denouement, that's hilarious.
The Edge (1988). All you really need to know about this one is that it's set on a cross-Canada train where the protagonist is working as a waiter for a murder mystery show; there is a racing connection, but there is a lot more dinner theater, and it's delightful.
Straight (1989). In terms of the moment-to-moment technique that started this conversation, it is relevant that the protagonist spends the entire novel on crutches and it accurately affects not just the action scenes but the daily minutiae of his life. The plot is a more or less literal treasure hunt involving a lot of late-'80's technology and is fondly fixed in my memory despite my near-total inability to remember the particulars of any of the tech.
To the Hilt (1996). I have no explanation for this novel except the combined id of Richard and Mary Francis, even more so than usual. The protagonist is baroquely tortured and the character who reads most naturally as the love interest is a fabulously competent cross-dressing PI whom even the protagonist's sort-of-ex-wife ships with him. The protagonist also paints golf scenes. There's a museum feud. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when last I checked it was the one novel out of the Francis oeuvre that had actually attracted an AO3 fandom. Personally I await the kdrama.
I am sure I have forgotten something and will return to this thread when it returns to me.