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Recently we had a friend visiting for a week, and then shortly afterwards went up to stay at a another friend's cottage in Maine for the long July 4th weekend. In addition to the novel phenomenon of spending concentrated time with beloved non-household humans I've also seen a great deal of the ocean, and lots of birds and seals and a baby whale, and generally had a truly wonderful time! but very little of it has been spent on the internet so my booklogging backlog does grow ever longer.

However, both

genarti and

jothra are firmly convinced that Vacation Is A Time To Read Dick Francis Novels. Therefore, upon arrival in Maine a serious consultation took place among the Dick Francis aficionados and I was subsequently handed two paperbacks and informed that these were the Dick Francis that had been hand-selected for me. I managed to finish one of them, Straight, (the other will have to wait for another future vacation later in the summer), which was indeed very enjoyable, in large part because it read delightfully like an escape room write large.

The plot of this one is that the jockey protagonist's kind but secretive elder brother has unexpectedly died in an accident and left his jewelry business to the jockey brother, mysteriously missing either 1.5 million dollars OR 100 diamonds. The secret of what happened with the diamonds is buried somewhere in the brother's house full of weird mystery keys and hollow books and locked cabinets, OR in the brother's mysteriously encoded computer files which may have passwords written down somewhere in the notebooks he left, OR in one of the brother's weird and extremely specific gadgets that do things like 'measure the specific width of a room' and 'beep exactly at 4:20 every afternoon for unspecified reasons that may tie into one of the other mysteries ...'

Admittedly there's probably a bit too much plot to really adapt this book into an escape room, but you could probably also make a very good puzzle-adventure computer game to much the saame effect. Anyway, Jo told me she picked this one because she also thought I would like the jewelry-store staffer who get to come into her own professionally (nonromantically) helping the jockey learn about gemstones, and I do like her quite a lot! But my actual favorite character is the jockey's temporary chauffeur -- the jockey needs a chauffeur because he broke his ankle badly on the racetrack immediately before the action began and spends the entire book on crutches and having to be really conscious of what he physically can and can't do so as not to make the injury worse, another factor I think is quite well done -- his antisocial neighbor who barely speaks and refuses to answer the carphone but nonetheless gets really smug every time he participates in solving the mystery and also saves the protagonist's life several times; IMO the main love interest of the book.

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I've never read a Dick Francis book, and I don't know what I thought they were, but -- not this -- and now I want to read it.

I had never read one until a year or two ago, when

genarti described to me the one in which a millionaire amateur detective goes undercover as an actor on a murder mystery train who is undercover as a waiter in the murder mystery dining car, and I realized there was no way I couldn't not read that book.

THE CHAUFFEUR IS SO GREAT. Every time he uttered a self-satisfied "Yerss" I was charmed anew.

I also loved the weird and extremely specific gadgets, and how incredibly late 80s they were. Each one a separate box with twiddly knobs or buttons! It was hilarious. Especially with the conscientious author's note informing us that the people are fictional but the gadgets all exist.

Yeah, I loved EVERY SINGLE gadget, and how many of them were gadget red herrings -- I absolutely expected the 'perfectly measures a room!' gadget to be relevant and then laughed really hard when it never actually was.

his antisocial neighbor who barely speaks and refuses to answer the carphone but nonetheless gets really smug every time he participates in solving the mystery and also saves the protagonist's life several times; IMO the main love interest of the book.

I feel I should have read this book, but I can't remember this character, so I must not have.

So glad to be reminded of this one! I long ago sold all my Dick Francis paperbacks - I'd reread them enough that I couldn't imagine getting any more pleasure out of them. But subsequent injury and consequent memory loss has apparently stolen the details, and so I have ordered this to enjoy again.

I very much hope you do!

I did! I bought an ebook and gobbled it up last weekend. Just as much pleasure, if not more, as the first time I read it more than 20 years ago.

The person who lent me the book also could not remember the chauffeur, so if you did read it previously and he slipped out of memory, you're not alone! It's what he would want tbh, his ability to fade into the background is one of his greatest skills.

It's what he would want tbh, his ability to fade into the background is one of his greatest skills.

I recognized the book from its opening sentence, had completely forgotten Brad, hope he would appreciate it.

So many little gadgets! I love his books, they are both very predictably shaped and very unexpected in the details.

I cannot remember the chauffeur tbh but this sounds like an extremely Dick Francis thing to have in a book, i.e. the competent second leading man who would be a great main love interest.

I love his books, they are both very predictably shaped and very unexpected in the details.

Yes! This is such a good description of the appeal of them, especially as vacation or comfort reads. You know what you're getting, broadly speaking, but you also know that there will be little surprise gems (literally, here) of character and details along the way, and enough twists to the formula that it's not just a standardized plod through the beats.

Formulaic enough to be reliable, twisty enough to have some crunch!

Yeah! It's still very funny to me how unpredictable I sometimes find them tbh just because I'm judging by the yardstick of a different genre; in the back of my head I still expect them to run by gothic rules (the nicest person is always the criminal!) and they truly just don't.

This is the second in a row that's had the second leading man feature and to be honest I am enjoying it very much!

I love the image of the serious consultation before you were handed books.

I burned out on Francis when I read like three in a row on an airplane (back when one did things like that) in which all the protagonists were jerks in particularly dudely ways, but I have been making note of the ones you are handed for when I want to get back in!

I am told that the ones I am being handed are only the top tier and specially designed to appeal to my tastes (there was a long consultation about one that featured a dead wife -- "it's very good!" said my friend, anxiously, "but Becca doesn't like manpain, so it might not be right --") so I think this is probably a very good tactic tbh!

Your trip sounds lovely! So glad you got to do that!

Thank you! Me too, very much. :D

All of your reviews of these Dick Francis books are so delightful, I love all the wacky little details they all seem to have in them.

I'm glad you're enjoying them! One of the fun things about Francis is definitely his way of doing a Serious Deep Dive into whatever industry he's investigating -- I now certainly know more about the semiprecious gemstone trade than I did previously.

Vacations are wonderful. I had mine in May and June. Also I know I must have read this one but don't remember it and now want to go find it.

I hope your vacations were delightful as well!

A baby whale!!

I have never thought to read a Dick Francis book, but honestly, the jewelry clerk and the chauffeur have piqued my interest.

I should say for the sake of strict accuracy that I actually misspoke -- she's not a jewelry clerk but a secretary in the semiprecious-gems-supply-business -- but the side plot about her is very good and the chauffeur is a delight.

I was resolutely refusing to read them until a few years ago because it was much funnier to just let

genarti explain them to me, but now I have caved and will probably bring another paperback Francis with me on my next vacation.

I have not read this one and now I am eagerly waiting for it to come back to the library! (I’m also anticipating your further excursions into Francis, they are such satisfying books)

I have another hand-selected one on the table right now waiting for my next trip next week! I think the protagonist is a writer of some sort?

Ooh is it Longshot?