Rate this book

Even Money (2009)

by Dick Francis(Favorite Author)

3.69 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0399155910 (ISBN13: 9780399155918)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Putnam Adult

review 1: Ned Talbot is a legal small time bookmaker who works out of various British racing tracks. After a day at the races, a man comes up to him and tells him he is his father. Ned thought his father and mother had died in an accident 36 years earlier. As they leave the track, they are attacked by a man demanding to know where Ned's father has his money and kills him when he fights back. Thus starts Ned on a quest to find out why they were attacked, why his father was murdered while sparring with the police. It is a very decent mystery, but Ned's actions are highly questionable and it is surprising he didn't end up murdered or thrown in jail.
review 2: I’m not a gambler and I’ve only been to the races twice in my life, so the settings of Dick Francis’ myst... moreery books are not familiar territory for me and I’ve never been drawn to his novels. However, having picked this one out of a bargain book bin, I found I thoroughly enjoyed it and will definitely seek out some more in the series. In spite of the various layers in the plot, there was a linear quality to the style that made the book very easy to put down and pick up again without any sense of losing the thread. The clean, easy writing style made the world of horse racing very accessible for me, and the information about the wheeling and dealing was fascinating – if not always palatable regarding the treatment of horses that don’t make the grade. The characters were appealing, and the story of the protagonist, and his concern for his wife who was struggling with mental illness, was touching and believable. The actual mystery springs more from the background of the main character, but all the hustling and action surrounding the turf takes so much of the reader’s focus that the solution to that mystery seems to spring out of nowhere – almost as if one had forgotten that the mystery existed. Clearly, the father and son Francis team did a very good job of distracting the reader into the other plot-lines. I would have preferred to have more step-by-step clues to keep me engaged in that part of the story, and I found the detailed and coherent revelation coming from a grandmother with dementia a bit hard to credit, but in spite of that, the book was an engaging and entertaining read. less

Download links for: Even Money

Advertising