token offering
Feb. 22nd, 2010 11:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyphomandraI have moved into the new house and out of the old one, which sounds simple enough but I have 12 bruises on my left thigh alone, I found a hole in the floor of the old house (fortunately this is now the property manager's problem) and the new house is largely decorated in a nice repeating cardboard box motif. Regular reviews will resume eventually with the same erratic frequency as previous, but in the meantime here are the two Dick Francis books I read while unpacking the "F"s (I am now up to the end of "M", although I have done all the manga as well).
I have definitely not read the first of these before but have probably read the second - I do not find the titles of these all that easy to remember, although usually skimming the summary is enough to shake something free. Anyway. All Dick Francis books have a first person male narrator who is quietly competent and usually damaged, a combination I'm fond of, and they also have good solid research and fast-moving plots, and they are therefore soothing to those who are stressed by house-moving. Francis himself died recently, sadly, and this brought up again the question about how much his wife Mary (who died earlier) contributed towards the writing of the books. However, although I'd prefer the credits to have been to the actual author(s), the important thing is that they were written at all. I will settle for referring to the author as "Francis" in an unhelpfully non committal fashion.
So. Proof has a wine merchant, recently widowed, who ends up assisting a private detective (and, to a lesser degree, the police) in solving a large-scale fraud involving alcohol and, as always, horses; it's fairly standard, although there's a fairly horrific murder method - wrapping the victim's head in plaster-of-paris - and the lead is also less physically brave than usual for Francis, although this is a plot point. Knock Down has a bloodstock agent resisting the standover and other unethical tactics of another agent, and has an interesting not-romance - he gets together with an air traffic controller he meets after her car has an accident swerving to avoid his escaped horse, but she has very definite personal boundaries and although they have sex it does not look like it's going any further - and, also, an alcoholic brother, with a nicely underdrawn workably heartbreaking relationship between the two of them. The end of Knock Down was a lot bleaker than I was expecting, actually; it's not uncommon for Francis to go for bittersweet, but this pushes that quite a bit further. The crime plot's more interesting in Proof, but I think Knock Down's the better story.
I have definitely not read the first of these before but have probably read the second - I do not find the titles of these all that easy to remember, although usually skimming the summary is enough to shake something free. Anyway. All Dick Francis books have a first person male narrator who is quietly competent and usually damaged, a combination I'm fond of, and they also have good solid research and fast-moving plots, and they are therefore soothing to those who are stressed by house-moving. Francis himself died recently, sadly, and this brought up again the question about how much his wife Mary (who died earlier) contributed towards the writing of the books. However, although I'd prefer the credits to have been to the actual author(s), the important thing is that they were written at all. I will settle for referring to the author as "Francis" in an unhelpfully non committal fashion.
So. Proof has a wine merchant, recently widowed, who ends up assisting a private detective (and, to a lesser degree, the police) in solving a large-scale fraud involving alcohol and, as always, horses; it's fairly standard, although there's a fairly horrific murder method - wrapping the victim's head in plaster-of-paris - and the lead is also less physically brave than usual for Francis, although this is a plot point. Knock Down has a bloodstock agent resisting the standover and other unethical tactics of another agent, and has an interesting not-romance - he gets together with an air traffic controller he meets after her car has an accident swerving to avoid his escaped horse, but she has very definite personal boundaries and although they have sex it does not look like it's going any further - and, also, an alcoholic brother, with a nicely underdrawn workably heartbreaking relationship between the two of them. The end of Knock Down was a lot bleaker than I was expecting, actually; it's not uncommon for Francis to go for bittersweet, but this pushes that quite a bit further. The crime plot's more interesting in Proof, but I think Knock Down's the better story.
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Date: 2010-02-24 08:30 am (UTC)LOL! I'm so glad that you've moved successfully. I would like to give you a house-warming present...but for some reason I keep thinking it should be a book *grin*
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Date: 2010-02-24 08:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-24 10:01 am (UTC)Have you read any of the recent ones? I keep meaning to look for them at the library.
Thanks for the house-warming wishes! I am now up to "R" in unpacking and feel that the last thing I need is more books (this is not a feeling that will last for any significant length of time :) )
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Date: 2010-02-26 04:01 am (UTC)I am now up to "R" in unpacking and feel that the last thing I need is more books.
I am sure that won't last long *grin*