His wife, Mary, had been his researcher and (to some extent, at least) co-writer, although she refused to have her name on the books, saying Dick's name was well known but hers wasn't.
After her death, Felix, the couple's younger son, and his father's business manager, officially joined his father as co-author of the former champion jockey's last four books - Dead Heat, Silks, Even Money and Crossfire. Now, with Gamble, Felix Francis does his own thing, with a nod in his father's direction being the tag line, A Dick Francis novel, on the book's cover.
Gamble starts with a murder at Aintree on Grand National day.
Standing beside American Herb Kovak as he falls is his workmate, Nicholas Foxton. The pair had been colleagues at a London firm of independent financial advisers and it was Herb's first visit to the races. Why he was killed is a mystery but in the way Dick Francis made famous, Nicholas begins to investigate, is threatened, attacked, arrested for a near-fatal bashing he didn't commit and eventually discovers Herb's murderer in a satisfying conclusion.
No prize to the reader who guesses whodunit, as it isn't too difficult to work out, especially if you've read a reasonable selection of earlier Francis books.
The background is, as always, well drawn and, if the financial detail is sometimes a trifle longwinded, it is germane, as the old detective adage, follow the money, is vital to Gamble's plot. The hero's relationship with his live-in girlfriend forms an interesting sub-plot, but her character is not well drawn and Nicholas is overly mature and experienced at 28. The Dick Francis heroes were usually in their early to mid-30s, a more appropriate age. And that brings up the issue for the Dick Francis devotee of trying to read Gamble while setting aside the legacy of earlier books.
It is impossible not to compare them and find Gamble a smidgen flat, particularly given the strength of the final Dick-Felix collaborations Even Money and Crossfire. Still, there is plenty to enjoy - and maybe the publishers will drop that naff cover line next time.
• Gillian Vine is a Dunedin writer.
