To those of who grew up on Dick Francis books, his passing in 2010 at the age of 89 felt like losing an old friend. He wrote his first racing-themed crime novel, Dead Cert, the year I was born, 1962, and reliably churned out almost one per year-42 in total-until he passed away. Most arrived just in time for Christmas each year.
If anyone was concerned that his son Felix would not be up to the task of taking over the family franchise, they needn't have worried. This year, Francis is back with a novel just in time for the holidays with Hands Down, the latest in the series of Sid Halley books.
Halley, you'll remember, is the former champion steeplechase jockey whose career was ended when his left hand destroyed in a racing fall; stepped on by a trailing horse who sliced it open with a razor-sharp racing plate. Sid, who attended the London School of Economics, was always smarter than your average jockey and went to work as an investigator. It was in this job that the hand was further damaged by a thug Halley had thwarted who beat it so badly with a fireplace poker it had to be amputated.
When we last saw Sid, he was getting by with a high-tech artificial hand that doubled as a weapon when he needed to club someone over the head. But newly married and with a child, he had decided that the detective business might not fit his lifestyle any more.
In Hands Down, we learn from the very first words on the page that Sid has been the recipient of a hand transplant which, while it doesn't quite match the rest of his skin tone, otherwise functions perfectly well, even if everyone he comes across reflexively glances down at his hand when they meet him.
Hands Down is a typical Sid Halley story, and Halley fans will find all of their old favorites here: wife Marina, daughter Saskia, and his ex-father-in-law Charles Roland. Even Chico Barnes is back, even if he has gained a pound or two.
And, as usual, there is drama underfoot in British jump racing. His trainer friend calls him to tell him that someone is pressuring him to fix races and he's not putting up with it any more. Sid has his own problems to worry about and tells him to find someone else to help him, but when the friend's stable is set on fire, he is forced to reconsider, despite turmoil in his personal life.
Hands Down is the sixth in the Sid Halley series, and the first since Refusal, also written by Felix Francis, in 2013. Halley fans won't be disappointed, even if the book sometimes feels a bit formulaic, and the foreshadowing a little heavy handed. (I mean, when I figure something out before Sid does…)
Still, it's a pleasant journey down a familiar path, following Sid on his one-man, always-successful show to save British horse racing.
Maybe we can entice him to take a trip to America.
Hands Down, Crooked Lane Books, 304 pages, November, 2022
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