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RISK by Dick Francis

RISK

by Dick Francis

Pub Date: Aug. 1st, 2006
ISBN: 0425211037
Publisher: Harper & Row

Every Dick Francis steeplechase puts a persecuted narrator-hero through some sort of physical ordeal; this one puts likable Roland Britten through what reads—and it's nonstop reading as always—like one long torture. Roland's an accountant specializing in horseracing clients, but he's also a gifted amateur jockey—and, right after an astonishing Gold Cup win, he's kidnapped, waking up to find himself trussed and stashed in the lower bunk of a small cabin cruiser drifting in the western Mediterranean. He eventually escapes and gets back to London (aided by a gutsy spinster whom he graciously deflowers on request)—only to be grabbed again and sealed up in a truck. Obviously, someone's intent on keeping Roland out of circulation. Is it the race-fixing manager of the horse he rides? Or an embezzling client? Or. . . ? More zippy ordeals ensue before Roland learns the dispiriting truth, and only a few spoilsports will look past the breathtaking narrative dash to notice that—notwithstanding the nifty relationship between Roland and spinster Hilary—this is not only the fastest Francis ever, but perhaps the emptiest.