Crossfire
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Product Description
An exhilarating new novel from the New York Times-bestselling authors.
Shell-shocked and missing a foot-lost to an IED during his tour of duty in Afghanistan-Captain Tom Forsyth has been sent “home” by the army and, at loose ends, returns to his alienated mother’s house for the first time since he joined up at seventeen. But Josephine Kauri, the “first lady of British racing,” has permanently place the horses she trains first and her family tree last. Tom soon finds himself strained to the breaking point with his mother and stepfather.
But there’s another reason for the airless tension at Kauri House Stables: Josephine is being blackmailed for a beefy sum every week-and forced to make her horses lose. Retirement is not an option, as she has been warned that it will result in the thing she most fears: exposure and ridicule . . . and prison, when the government finds out what she’s been hiding.
Tom sets out to learn and defeat this hidden enemy using his keenly honed military skills. But can he save his mother’s reputation and career, or will he find himself caught in the cross fire?
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It’s impossible to read this book lacking realizing that Dick Francis, champion mystery writer, is truly dead and that literature, as well as the mystery genre, is the poorer for it.
Dick Francis wrote mystery novels the same way he rode his racehorses: a smart start, a well-paced middle and a thundering end. Even when he came up fleeting there was no doubt he was riding to win. His works had certain hallmarks. The predictable Dick Francis hero was a stoic male narrator who would take incredible abuse and persist despite the odds stacked against him. Many of the additional characters were one-dimensional; most of the women even worse. Like many mystery writers, Dick Francis could tell a riveting tale according to the best mystery formula. What lifted Dick Francis above his competitors in the mystery meadow was his style which had fans of excellent English lining up in bookstores to get his latest work. Each sentence was faultless; each word precisely in the right place; the result was like an action-oriented and macho Jane Austen married to a less stilted and terse Hemingway.
In the last few works that also bore his son’s name, one could point to shifts in substance: more dimensions to the characters, heroes who would say ‘ouch’ and a more disturbing quality to the violence. These weren’t terrible things, and I reflect that Felix Francis has it in him to be a fine writer.
I just don’t reflect he should be trying to write his dad’s novels.
On the surface, CROSSFIRE looks like a sure winner with an appealing hero, a wounded veteran of the war in Afghanistan, and an intriguing premise involving blackmail and murder. There’s more complexity in the plot and in the hero, but the start is rocky, the middle sags and the ending made me close the book with a snap and say: “You expect me to judge this?” The hero, for all his sterling qualities and ability to quote Sun Tzu, is a small too ready to dish out violence of his own and his family tree is so dysfunctional that they are no fun to spend time with.
This is a no-spoiler review so I can’t dissect the plot and characters the way I really want to but I can place my finger on one point that will sum up all my additional complaints.
One of the enduring and endearing hallmarks of a Dick Francis novel was the way he worked the horses in and he did so in a way that his own like for them was apparent. They might be no more than background, but one way you could tell the excellent guys from the terrible guys is that the excellent guys would never do anything terrible to a horse. In this book, the hero’s mom, supposed to be an outstanding teacher, deliberately nobbles her horses with a concoction that gives them tummy pain. No way. Hard to judge. But Dick Francis is really dead.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
As this, the final Dick Francis novel, starts we are abruptly pulled into the world of career army officer Captain Thomas Forsyth just as his career comes to an end. While on duty in Afghanistan Tom stepped on a landmine, blowing off his foot. After months spent recovering from his injury and learning to adapt to his prosthetic foot Tom stood on the hospital steps and realized that he had no where to go additional than back to the place he had fled as a teenager – the home of his mother and stepfather. His mother, a highly successful racehorse teacher, had permanently been more concerned with the well being of the horses in her stable than with her only son. His stepfather had regarded Tom as an unfortunate part of the bargain he had struck when he had married Tom’s mother. Once Tom arrived on his mother’s doorstep he quickly realized that small had changed in the fifteen years since he had left. His mother and step-father tolerated his presence, in fact they seemed reasonably nervous for him to place. There had been some changes since he had left, the stables had expanded, a result of his mother’s skill and success. Lately though it seemed as though she had been having a run of terrible luck, one that had been going on long enough that the family tree finances were beginning to suffer. As Tom spent more time returning to the close knit racing community he had grown up in small details started to come to his attention, things that didn’t reasonably make sense. Just what was going on that he wasn’t reasonably getting? As Tom started to look for answers he establish that he needed as the skills that he had learned in his Army career in order to find the answers.
Over the course of his long writing career Dick Francis had developed a very distinct style of writing. His novels all featured stoic heroes who, for one reason or another, were dealing with loneliness usually as a result of a dysfunctional family tree. All the tales were in someway connected with the world of racing and all were meticulously researched. For much of his career Dick Francis’ wife had been his uncredited writing partner. When she died a few years ago it was widely feared that there would be no more Francis novels. Happily though one of Francis’ sons, Felix stepped in as co-writer. Midway through this, their fourth collaboration the elder Francis died, building this their final project. The final sentence of this novel gives a glimmer of hope exists though for future novels coming from Felix’s pen – after all ‘one should never assume anything’.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
I’ve been a Dick Francis fan for years, and it was wonderful to hear his voice in this new novel, somehow made fresh with Felix Francis’ writing. I was prepared to be horrified or disappointed, but as a replacement for I establish myself drawn in to hear an ancient friend entertain me once again. The authors’ voice isn’t exactly the same – but you wouldn’t want it to be.
Felix Francis is a fine leader. Crossfire weaves together many of the classic Francis fundamentals – complex family tree dynamics, the misunderstood loner (suffering, of course), racing horses, officials and trainers, the fight for justice – into a satisfying tale.
I hope we’ll see more books from Felix Francis. He’s terrific!
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
I hadn’t read any Dick Francis books before “Crossfire,” but I’ll certainly be seeking out more of them now. The plot unfolds at such a excellent pace that I was really frustrated when I had to stop reading.
The main character, Tom, is a soldier who was wounded in Afghanistan. Impressively, Felix & Dick Francis were able to write about his injuries and experience in the war lacking getting political. Tom thinks like a soldier, and I appreciated the Sun Tzu quotes that are sprinkled throughout the book. Tax schemes, fraud, shady offshore banks, and accountants attempting to be overly clever are tied into the plot. The financial intrigue aspect of the tale is a welcome change from the predictable murder mystery.
It is an enjoyable page turner with a plot and characters that would be loved by a wide audience.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Dick and Felix Francis bring the equestrian-themed mystery into current international affairs with Crossfire. Captain Tom Forsyth has lost a foot to an IED in Afghanistan, and goes “home” to his mother’s house for additional rehabilitation. But he had left home at 17 for a reason, and he gets the same cold-shoulder reception that he was expecting. His mother is a highly-regarded (indeed, award winning) teacher for her Kauri House Stables.
And his mother is also being blackmailed to the tune of 2000 pounds sterling a week. Why does she feel like she needs to pay? She’s been listening to an accountant and his tax dodging schemes, and now fears exposure and imprisonment.
What’s a decorated and wounded vet to do? Forsyth becomes an active participant as he investigates, with dire consequences, a la Dick Francis.
Dick Francis’ death in 2010 was a blow to persons of us who looked forwards to every new book. But, his last few projects, concluded with the help of his son, Felix, have been successful additions to the Francis book stable. I am going to guess that Felix has learned from the mystery master and, when Felix goes solo, that fans will still be satisfied.
Don’t miss Crossfire! And I like the comments Captain Tom Forsyth makes about WD-40 and duct tape! Too real!
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5