For those who grew up with Dick Francis books, his passing in 2010 at the age of 89 was like losing an old friend. He wrote his first racing-themed crime novel, Certificate is dead, the year I was born, 1962, and reliably was almost a year-42 in total-until his death. Most come just in time for Christmas every year.
If anyone is worried that their son Felix won’t be able to take over the family business, they need not worry. This year, Francis is back with a holiday novel with Hand downThe latest installment in the Sid Halley series of books.
Halley, you’ll remember, was a former tower racing champion who ended his career when his left hand was destroyed in a racing fall; stepped on by a trailing horse, who slashed it open with a razor-sharp rag. Sid, who attended the London School of Economics, was always smarter than your average racer and went to work as an investigator. It was during this job that the hand was further injured by a thug that Halley thwarted, who beat it so badly with a heater that it had to be amputated.
The last time we saw Sid, he was living with a high-tech artificial hand that could double as a weapon when he needed to hit someone over the head. But newly married and with a child, he decided that detective work might no longer fit his lifestyle.
In Hand downwe know from the very first words on the page that Sid has had a hand transplant which, although it doesn’t quite match the rest of his skin tone, otherwise works perfectly fine, even when everyone he encountered glanced reflexively down his hand when they met him.
Hand down is a typical Sid Halley story, and Halley fans will find all of their old favorites here: wife Marina, daughter Saskia and ex-father-in-law Charles Roland. Even Chico Barnes is back, even if he has gained a pound or two.
And, as usual, there was drama in the British jump race. His coaching buddy called him to tell him that someone was pressuring him to finish races and he wouldn’t take it anymore. Sid has his own problems to worry about and tells him to find someone else to help him, but when his friend’s stable is on fire, he is forced to reconsider, despite the turmoil in his personal life. mine.
Hand down is the sixth book in the Sid Halley series, and the first since Rejection, also written by Felix Francis, in 2013. Halley fans won’t be disappointed, even if the book is a tad bit short at times. The formula and foreshadowing are a bit heavy. (I mean, when I figure something out before Sid…)
Still, it’s been an enjoyable journey down a familiar path, following Sid in his always-successful one-man performance to save British horse racing.
Maybe we can entice him to travel to America.
Hands Down, Crooked Lane Books, 304 pages, November 2022
