Shattered

Rating:
Summary: Shattered Expectations
Review: If you are a Dick Francis fan, don't read this book. If this is truly his last work, this is not the way you want to remember his final efforts. I have been a fan for over 34 years. I still believe his earlier works were his best. They were tightly written with exciting characters and did not (like his recent novels) try laboriously to fill page after page with a new profession, hobby, whatever that Francis was trying to tie into his horseracing backround. However, I have to this date still looked forward to his newest work with the expectation of enjoying it to some degree. Shattered did not meet that expectation. It was a painful embarassment to the reader and the author. I can only justify reading it (and I fell asleep twice as I forced myself to turn the pages) by my hope that it would get better--I kept saying surely this can't be this bad. However, not only was it that bad, it kept getting worse. The boy hacker was unreal--in his fear, relations with family, interaction with the hero and his friends. He was a painfully contrived way for the hero to solve the mystery himself. The villanous was totally unbelievable even if she were mad, not just a badly conceived bad person. And, for the police to stand aside at the end and let villans run through the door and then go in was absurd. Do yourself a faveor. If you are in need of a Dick Francis fix, re-read previous favorites and pass this one up.

Rating:
Summary: Quick & easy, but a good read.
Review: What does one read a Francis for? In my case, as with reading Robert B. Parker, neither plot nor theme is of paramount importance. Francis' characters here are, as always, a little stronger than life, yet believable. His hero, Gerard Logan, is the same basic character as in Francis' other novels, simply, as usual, with a different background. His situation, as usual, is something of a puzzle to which he does not have all the pieces; the plot is primarily his blundering ~ and then finessing ~ his way to the answer. Along with the regular hero, we also meet the regular love interest ~ a policewoman ~ a rather nasty villainess with a cadre of willing and unwilling helpers, and a nice boy caught on the outskirts of the villains but leaning towards the good. His rescue is one of the extra tasks our hero accomplishes. Perhaps the best part about most of Francis' novels is the way that he learns about a new trade or art and then passes all his information on to us. I especially enjoyed this book's extra knowledge, as i live in "Crystal City," because Logan is a glassblower ~ an artist in glass. I have seen many of the things he does done; yet reading the descriptions adds more to the experience and imagination. I don't think i have yet come away from one of Francis' books without the desire to know more, or participate in, the activity he teaches us of. That alone makes for successful books. "Shattered" fits that category, too.

Rating:
Summary: Shattered
Review: I find it heartbreaking that this might be the master's final book -- discovering that his dear wife had been his coauthor for all these years did not surprise me, for all of his/their protagonists have been or wanted to be connected to people. I sincerely hope that next year there will be another book like his best, whichever of his many titles you consider his best. May he live and write for another thirty years!

Francis' authors have often been craftsmen of one sort or another, who share with jockeys and other horsemen the need to pay close attention as well as think in the broad context. This newest novel is not the best ("To The Hilt" is that, to me; or "Wild Horses") with this kind of protagonist, but it is eternally refreshing to read his deceptively straightforward language and encounter new and complex characters. Francis' novels are expositions on the banality of evil -- the attitude that if the rules are inconvenient, they don't apply to one -- and although knowledge of Mary Francis' failing health does explain the sketchiness of the plot, the Francises never fail the reader with characterization.

My favorite author is halved, but still living

Rating:
Summary: Another visit from an old friend
Review: I have been a Francis fan for many years now, having read most of his books. While this one is not his best, it it still a far better effort than we see from other authors.

This book contains the familiar comforts we have come to expect from Francis-- a likeable accidental hero, a loathsome villan or two, a nice girl and the chance to learn something. Reading one of Francis' novels is like sitting down with an old, familiar friend. We know what to expect, and I think this lack of surprise is why so many reviewers have panned this book. It is exactly the reason I bought it. I knew what I would be in for and I didn't have to wonder if I had just wasted $20 and killed a few trees for nothing.

I have heard rumors that this may be Francis' last book. While I understand his desire to retire, I will miss the yearly visit with my old friend. But then, I have 40 other chances to become reacquainted with him.

Dick Francis at his worst is still better than other authors at their best!

Rating:
Summary: It's not THAT bad!
Review: Is it his best? Well, no. But it's still a decent novel.

This time the mise en scène is the glass blowing studio owned by Gerard Logan, friend of the late Martin Stukely, a jockey who takes a fatal fall at the Cheltenham steeplechase during the last race of the century. Still mourning Martin, Gerard is savagely beaten, his workshop ransacked, and his life threatened by a gang of thugs.

Investigating, Gerard discovers that the gang includes a domineering woman who's the daughter of Martin's valet and a scientist who's stolen valuable data from the laboratory that formerly employed him. They believe Gerard has possession of a videotape entrusted to him by Martin before his death and that the secrets on the tape are worth Gerard's life.

It's a good set up, with just enough of the usual horse lore and a pleasant love story involving Gerard and a pretty policewoman, neither of which overshadow the taut pacing and the well-worked-out plot.

Francis's protagonists may be accidental heroes, but they're not antiheroes; they're usually eminently decent, likable men, and their sense of self is always interesting.

Rating:
Summary: A good story from one of our better mystery writers
Review:

This is light reading designed to entertain you. It succeeds admirably.

Gerard Logan is a successful artistic glass blower whose friend, jockey Martin Stukely, dies in a fall during a steeplechase. After his death, his valet gives Logan a videotape following his boss's instructions, thereby embroiling Logan in a series of frightful dangers and adventures.

Author Dick Francis is the former jockey to the Queen of England. His mysteries always involve horseracing, but also usually have a secondary area of interest; in this case, glassblowing, which he always deals with expertly and knowledgeably. Murder is also typically involved. Francis is a master storyteller, and his tales are a pure pleasure to read. This one is no exception.

Another characteristic of Francis' stories is the unusual ways in which pain is meted out to his protagonists, who cannot seem to make it through without experiencing some vast discomfort at the hands of the villain. In this case, when the 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit glassblowers' furnace was introduced, with a five-foot punty iron tipped with molten liquid glass, I knew instantly how pain would be inflicted, and it curdled my blood.

This is a story that held my interest to the end, in the time-honored tradition of British murder mysteries. Generally, Francis keeps the language clean and when sex is alluded to, it is hinted at and relatively unobtrusive. Francis has class.

I like his work.

Joseph Pierre

Rating:
Summary: 3 stars for the past
Review: As a Dick Francis fan for nearly twenty-five years, I anxiously await his new novels. Unfortunately, this years effort lacks the quality of most Francis' works. It is a book that I had to push myself to keep reading. I kept hoping that maybe the next chapter would be the one that hooked my interest. None did!

The hero, Gerard Logan, is as likeable as any Francis character. What is most disappointing is the cast of villains. They are not so much villains as they are just plain rotten people. They lack the evil that made so many of Francis' characters despicable.

The plot itself fails to hold your interest, which is so unlike Dick Francis. With all that said, I am still a Dick Francis fan. For any other author it would be a one or two star book, but in thanks for all the wonderful reading hours DF has given me, 3 stars for the past.

Rating:
Summary: One fence short
Review: Dick Francis has said that this is his last novel. I am glad. The tightly woven, racetrack oriented stories of the early Francis gradually disappeared as he tried to create racing stories around other interests, i.e., hurricanes and glass blowing. Contrary to the dust cover, Shattered is as scattered as Second Wind. After we leave the race track at page 7, we enter into the world of glassblowing with an improbable, and often inexplicable, group of characters. The primary antagonist, a sadistic woman, is simply presented to us without a clue as to how or why she is without any redeeming qualities. She is just mean. Why does Gerard Logan allow himself to be beaten up, nearly disabled for life, yet remain reluctant to involve the police?

This novel, like recent ones, seems to have been written for a deadline and, consequently, does not exibit the serious editorial work that could have cleared up several inconsistencies.

I am afraid Dick Francis has given all he has to give. He came out of the gate strong. The last several fences put his off his stride.

Rating:
Summary: Not his best work
Review: Even mediocre Francis is still pretty darn good, so you can pick this one up with confidence that you'll enjoy the ride, but this is not Francis's strongest outing. It follows a predictable formula from his earlier works -- likeable, but slightly flawed lead character, who has the mental toughness to stay with the hunt in the face of serious physical danger -- level-headed, no nonsense love interest -- creepy villain -- it's all there.

There are some disappointments for long-time fans, however. First, the tie in to the racing world is pretty tenuous in this one. The lead character is a glass blower, whose best friend is a jockey who is killed in a race. That's pretty much the end of the horse racing element of the novel. The explanation for the hero's failure to involve the police earlier in the game is particularly weak. The hero's flaw -- a tendency toward womanizing -- is developed in approximately a half a dozen sentences and is otherwise dropped entirely.

Bottom line. Francis sleepwalks through a familiar formula here. It's such a good formula that fans will like this book well enough, but he's done a lot better in the past.

Rating:
Summary: My Illusions Shattered
Review: So very unlike the Dick Francis I have come to expect. Weak and pale characters, stilted dialog, badly woven plot. I kept paging back to the front to see if Dick Francis had died leaving only an outline that some substandard author had "filled in."