(no subject)

[skygiants]

Various persons of my acquaintance have been trying to convince me for some time to read Dick Francis, but ever since I had that dream about Dick Francis books I have deliberately abstained on the principle that it's clearly much funnier if I never read a Dick Francis book, ever.

Or at least this was the case until a few months ago, when genarti were in the car, and she started explaining to me the Dick Francis plot in which Our Hero has to do high-pressure detective work while undercover on a train where there's a bunch of horses AND a dangerous criminal AND ALSO a troupe of actors pretending to be ordinary horse-racing train passengers WHILE IN FACT conducting a week-long murder mystery dinner theater.

skygiants: I cannot believe the number of Dick Francis plots you've attempted to explain to me over the years without ever telling me about the WEEK-LONG MURDER MYSTERY DINNER THEATER!
genarti: I mean, yes, but it seemed like you didn't really want to read Dick Francis books and I didn't think it would be fair!

The point is: I have now broken my vow and read The Edge, the Dick Francis book set on a train featuring a week-long murder mystery dinner theater.

Our Hero is a nice young man who is secretly heir to a vast fortune, but prefers to spend his days undercover as a member of the SECRET RACECOURSE POLICE. Are the secret racecourse police a real thing? I don't know, but this was introduced on the first page and it was already everything that I had expected a Dick Francis novel to be.

Anyway, his latest job is to stop a Serious Racing Criminal from destroying the good times of everyone on the BIG CANADIAN RACING TRAIN, whence the horses and the murder mystery dinner theater. His bosses want him to go undercover as a Young Racing Millionaire. Instead, he decides to go undercover as a member of the murder mystery acting troupe who is, himself, undercover as a waiter -- i.e. all the other waiters think he's there as an undercover actor, and keep asking him when his big scene is coming up in between waiting tables. This is an amazing plot premise and Dick Francis should feel really good about it, especially when it involves our competent racing cop secret millionaire hero getting increasingly stressed out about a.) the impossibility of foiling or even guessing the villain's plans while b.) also making sure everyone has enough ice for their drinks, why is everyone always having FOUR COURSE meals, being a waiter is quite difficult it turns out??

Besides the actors, the horses, and the villain, other important players include:
- the hypercompetent project manager who serves as the love interest whenever either she or Our Hero have spare time, which is really not very often, she's kind of busy coordinating a major event?
- the Canadian cop who is Our Hero's contact on the ground, except he almost never actually contacts the Canadian cop, he keeps in touch with him by calling his elderly mother, who is having the BEST time being the secret contact in an Important Criminal Racing Case
- The Richest Millionaire In Canada and his Troubled Family, who are all on the train For The Good Of Canadian Racing
- tremendous amounts of lovingly described beautiful Canadian scenery

I enjoyed this book a lot, but perhaps the oddest thing about the reading experience was how much it made clear to me how my expectations have been trained on mysteries and Gothics. As a result, every time Dick Francis spent a fair amount of page space on a sympathetic or innocuous character, I'd start looking at them suspiciously: 'this horse-racing couple is Too Nice, they're CLEARLY not what they seem!' 'Our Hero has noticed the innocuous fake villain of the murder mystery dinner theater mingling inconspicuously with the passengers nearly ten times already, I bet he's wrapped up somehow in The Plot!'

But in fact all of my suspicions were completely unfounded; the villains are all very obviously villains from the moment they're introduced, and the suspense comes one hundred percent from the how and not at all from the who. I'm assuming this is where the actual genre line comes in dividing Novels Of Suspense from Novels Of Romantic Suspense from Mystery Novels; in mysteries, you're obviously expected to guess who the murderer is, while in Gothics/Romantic Suspense the most obviously villainous person invariably turns out to be the hero.

Comments

[venetia_sassy]

I am increasingly

a) surprised that my late father liked Dick Francis novels. (Annual Christmas present. It was the racehorses.)

b) sad that I had to ditch all his copies after he died; they reeked of cigarette smoke.

[skygiants]

Aw, that's too bad! I got this one out through library ebook; I feel pretty sure my grandfather, who was a big mystery/suspense reader, had copies, but at the time I wouldn't have known to look for them and now his books are all dispersed.

[rachelmanija]

I love The Edge.

"Being a love interest when they're not busy with something else" is pretty typical of Francis romantic subplots, actually. There's several where the heroine actually informs the hero upfront of this, which he takes with good grace because hey, she was honest and he loves his job too and being an air traffic controller/the headmistress of a very respected girls' school/etc is very important!

You are correct about the placement of the mystery angle (how and/or why rather than who) in suspense vs. mystery. I think there's a few Francis novels where the identity of the villain is mysterious but it's not his usual MO.

Isn't the elderly mom the best? She was my favorite.

[skygiants]

She was so good! I expected the mystery dinner theater actors to be my favorite part of the book, but in fact I loved the elderly mom even more.

I think what misled me really is all the time I've spent reading Gothics, which much more about this sense that NO ONE CAN BE TRUSTED, NO ONE IS WHAT THEY SEEM. Whereas in this Dick Francis, at least, if people aren't what they seem, it's just because they are smarter/kinder/have more of a heart of gold than first impressions would perhaps imply, and the people who already seem smart/kind/competent are indeed so.

(genarti and I spent some time running through Mary Stewart novels, which are maybe a bit more Romantic Suspense than Gothic, but almost all of them still do have the sympathetic decoy love interest who turns out to be evil.)

[aella_irene]

I am desperately trying to work out whether the heroine's profession in my favourite qualifies as A SPOILER.

[aella_irene]

I have concluded it DOES NOT, the book is Flying Finish and she is terribly worried about falling for the hero due to her secret job as a smuggler of birth control into Italy, because she is Italian, and wants her countrywomen to HAVE THE PILL.

[skygiants]

omg, I'm so glad you told me this *__*

[rachelmanija]

I love that one. Gabriella is one of my favorite Francis heroines.

[genarti]

omg, I haven't read that one and CLEARLY I NEED TO

[sovay]

Are the secret racecourse police a real thing? I don't know, but this was introduced on the first page and it was already everything that I had expected a Dick Francis novel to be.

I'm glad!

I read The Edge for the first time in April, at a very bad time, and I don't think it's my favorite Francis because that's almost certainly Reflex, but I really liked it and the dinner theater meta was a definite contributor.

- the hypercompetent project manager who serves as the love interest whenever either she or Our Hero have spare time, which is really not very often, she's kind of busy coordinating a major event?

This is characteristic of Dick Francis novels and one of the reasons I enjoy them so much. Romance, whatever. Let us do complicated technical things in our separate and/or overlapping spheres and appreciate one another for it.

[skygiants]

I loved when they just let him rewrite the entire ending of the show to let him pull a Hamlet, like, "eh, I'm not sure it actually makes sense a hundred percent but it's GOOD ENOUGH. IMPROV!!!"

Competence is always compelling! The other thing that stood out to me was how much attention Francis puts into the technical details of People Being Competent In Their Spheres; like, there's the whole thing about the really dedicated cook who's just very good at making train food for millionaires, and you can't really call his rivalry with the other train cook a subplot, they're just there doing their thing well and Francis thinks it's worthwhile for you to know about them.

[sovay]

they're just there doing their thing well and Francis thinks it's worthwhile for you to know about them.

I think that sums up a lot of Francis' attitude toward their* characters and the world.

* Per Francis himself: "Mary and I worked as a team . . . I have often said that I would have been happy to have both our names on the cover. Mary's family always called me Richard due to having another Dick in the family. I am Richard, Mary was Mary, and Dick Francis was the two of us together."

[ceitfianna]

I never knew that but it explains so much. I love the detail and care in the various careers for everyone in his books.

[cyphomandra]

I read The Edgefor the first time on a train in Canada, a process guaranteed to make my own journey feel rather unexciting in comparison!

I like Dick Francis a lot. Love interests with their own lives, quietly competent leads who listen to people, hurt/comfort and horses. Yay.

[skygiants]

What, you mean your train wasn't full of millionaires and in danger of accidentally crashing into the Canadian Express every other day?

That is my understanding of the basic appeal of Dick Francis, yes. :D And it holds true thus far!

[misbegotten]

The Edge is probably the one I've read the most after To the Hilt. To the Hilt is definitely my favorite.

while in Gothics/Romantic Suspense the most obviously villainous person invariably turns out to be the hero.

Ha! Well said.

[skygiants]

I feel like To The Hilt is one of the ones genarti has attempted to describe to me, but I cannot remember what about it or why...

[genarti]

You are correct! (It's the OT3ish one. There are other fun things about it also, but that tends to be the memorable tag.)

[osprey_archer]

I think in suspense novels, the obvious villains usually end up being the villains, but I don't think that generally holds true for plain mysteries - or at least not golden age ones; I probably haven't read enough modern mysteries to generalize.

But in golden age mysteries, the authors are trying to stump you, so usually the obvious villain is a red herring although I suppose a particularly devious mystery writer might fling up an extremely obvious villain just so experienced mystery readers will go COULDN'T POSSIBLY BE HIM, MUCH TOO OBVIOUS... and then it is him. No one suspects the devious foreign count with a mustache that he literally twirls!

Also weeklong murder mystery dinner theater is a glorious premise for a mystery novel and I applaud Francis for deploying it.

[pedanther]

I don't remember an example involving a moustache-twirling villain, but Agatha Christie did one where the police immediately latch on to an obvious suspect who was practically found standing over the body shouting "I did it", which everyone knows is a sure sign they're chasing a red herring, and then it turns out in the end that he actually did do it and deliberately plotted to be found the obvious suspect so that nobody would suspect him.

[osprey_archer]

YES God bless Agatha Christie for mining every single possible detective genre twist. Truly the godmother of all modern mystery novels.

[skygiants]

I did get fooled in the last Inspector Alleyn novel I read because the silly sidekick was like "I think this guy is the villain!" halfway through AND THEN HE REALLY WAS. I just never expect the silly sidekick ever to know what he's talking about!

But generally I feel like mysteries/gothics have trained me to pay attention to Suspicious Writer Focus AND Suspicious Writer Avoidance in a way that doesn't really seem to be the way suspense works, or at least not the way Francis works.

[monanotlisa]

HOMG, I used to love Dick Francis...though this WILD RIDE FROM START TO FINISH is not among the books I read.

[skygiants]

A wild ride from Toronto to Vancouver!! (Though to be fair there are many very chill passages in which Our Hero is just serving people drinks and Learning About Train Plumbing.)

[meganbmoore]

You made my want to read a Dick Francis novel. I hate you. In loving way.

[skygiants]

THUS WAS I INFECTED, AND NOW I PASS IT ON

[genarti]

Yesssss. I'm so pleased you enjoyed it!

I really love a lot of things about Dick Francis (including his -- or I guess I should say their, given Mary -- prose), but I especially enjoy the clear conviction that everybody wants to know about competent people doing their thing, whether their thing is steeplechase jockeying or murder investigations or wine sales or fancy train cuisine. And as many of his heroes are working-class as secret millionaires, and he recognizes that things like serving drinks with competent service profession invisibility take plenty of skill. It's a nice change from aristocratic heroes and house parties, as much as I love several aristocratic heroes and oh-dear-your-class-issues-are-showing authors. (And I knew he was a steeplechase jockey and horse trainer and a high school drop out, but wikipedia has just told me that Mary Francis was a former pilot?? That explains some things and also is super cool!)

And all his characters' romances seem to stem from a recognition of the other's intelligence/perceptiveness/competence/all three, with prettiness also a factor but a secondary one. It's great! And I love Nell in this one, and her clipboard, and how she's clearly attracted to Tor but also she has an event to run, if you want more than five minutes from her at a stretch try sometime next week.

(Also now I want to read this one again, and I just reread it last year. Hoist on my own petard!)

[skygiants]

I truly did, you were right to tell me I would, well done. :P

And as much as I laughed at SECRET MILLIONAIRE WORKS AT THE RACEHORSE, I did appreciate that he was a millionaire WITH a real job, who worked hard at his real job, and the millionaire factor was mostly just to make it plot-easy that he could stay at fancy hotels and so forth when required for disguise!

(Also, as I mentioned to you, it would have been very easy in the hands of another writer for Nell/Tor to slip over for me into STOP BOTHERING HER SHE'S BUSY, but Francis handles it just deftly enough that I am never annoyed!)

[jothra]

I think he's very good at writing people who are legitimately charming. Pressing their luck a little, but never smarmy, and always willing to back off when they know they aren't welcome. It's very refreshing.

[genarti]

Surely you of all people cannot deny me a little smugness at a correct book rec. :p But the post could have had a "mostly I enjoyed it but actually I was super bugged by this bit" part!

Also, yes, totally agreed about Tor being a millionaire with a real job. I'm not sure Francis really grokked what it was like to not want to work hard at a job one was well suited for, tbh.

[littlerhymes]

This is a beautiful post and I am happy you enjoyed The Edge! It is such a good little series of nesting boxes of pretence, WITH MURDER and PONIES.

[skygiants]

I was honestly expecting more ponies! The ponies provide the excuse for the plot but he doesn't actually spend all that much time with them. I didn't know it was allowable for a Dick Francis hero to never actually ride a horse.

(...I'm not complaining about the amount of horses, mind, I found it a very appropriate number, just more restrained than I had initially been led to expect.)