I have usually found Dick Francis a nice reliable read, good for convalescence in particular. I like the way you find out something about different industries or professions in most books, and I like the way his characters are shown to be affected emotionally by violence and other wrong doing. Too many detective novels of the more violent sort behave as though the emotional effects of violence and crime don't exist at all. I like the way his villains rarely look like villains from the outside - most real life villains don't, after all.
This is the first novel he has written since his wife died, she researched and edited for him, some people suspect she did the actual writing. Under Orders isn't up to his usual standard. The information about new technology and web gambling is info dumped instead of being integrated gracefully into the text, ditto the information needed from previous books - this is one of his rare sequels, the third book about Sid Halley. There is too much repetition, too much telling instead of showing.
I still enjoyed it, but if you haven't read a Francis before, try an earlier one.
Under Orders First published in 2006
This is the first novel he has written since his wife died, she researched and edited for him, some people suspect she did the actual writing. Under Orders isn't up to his usual standard. The information about new technology and web gambling is info dumped instead of being integrated gracefully into the text, ditto the information needed from previous books - this is one of his rare sequels, the third book about Sid Halley. There is too much repetition, too much telling instead of showing.
I still enjoyed it, but if you haven't read a Francis before, try an earlier one.
Under Orders First published in 2006
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