Danger

Rating:
Summary: A real winner
Review: Dick Francis has a knack for developing interesting characters. This book is no exception. The plot is well developed. The characters are very interesting.

Tony Britton does a great job as a reader.

Rating:
Summary: The second and final nail....
Review: in my coffin of fan-hood of Dick Francis. I first read Banker and loved it. The Danger is a high stakes adventure that finds twists where you would never expect them. Francis develops another excellent character in Andrew Douglas and Douglas' inner dialogue helps the story be truly captivating. The action is vivid to the point that you will be lucky if your life stays normal during the time you are reading this book. It is another installment in a vast collection of entertaining reads by Mr. Francis.

Rating:
Summary: An unusual mystery
Review: This highly enjoyable mystery is unusual in many ways, from the main character who is NOT a detective or police officer to the villains (kidnappers), plus the clever way Dick Francis worked the milieu he knows best (horses and horse racing) into each of the three kidnappings.
The main character, Andrew Douglas, is a partner in a firm which negotiates for the release of kidnap victims/hostages by working as an "advisor" to police, governments, and occasionally taking things into his own hands (unofficially) as demonstrated in the second kipnapping in the story. Andrew shares many traits with other Dick Francis heroes--he is honest, likeable, an all-around good guy who trumps the criminals and gets the girl in the end. In this novel, Andrew himself is not connected with horses or horse racing, but rather the connection comes from the fact that all of the kidnapping victims share a connection to the horse racing world, be it as a female jockey, a part-owner of a promising race horse, the owner of a race track, and the head of the Jockey Club. From these tenuous links, Andrew and his partners realize that the perpetrator is probably known to the horse racing world, and begin to try to trap him, but not before one more kidnapping takes place!
Like his other novels, this one too is a very easy, fast read, and takes readers from Italy to England to America before winding up most satisfactorily.
I also liked the other characters in the novel, particularly some of Andrew's partners (described and fleshed out thoughtfully and with humor) and his love-interest.
Readers will also learn something about horse racing, this time mostly from the perspective of a trainer and a jockey, as well as come away from the novel with a good sense of what it is like to go to the races, even if they have never attended.
If you have never read anything by Dick Francis, this novel is an excellent place to begin.