The book I read was a set of
two novels written by the same author, named Dick Francis.
The first novel I read was
entitled Flying Finish. The main character of this story is Henry, an
office worker working for a horse transfering company. He was born in
a noble family. Between the potential rich and noble fiancée his
mother is continuously bringing at home and his office work, he finds
his daily life boring. So, one day, he decides to change his job for
a less paid but more exciting one : transfering horses by planes
between Great-Britain and the other European countries.
During his flights, Henry
learns the secrets of these trips : the little trafic of
abbortion pills between Great Britain and Italy, where he falls in
love with an Italian girl ; the little arrangements of one of
his former colleagues in the office he used to work with, and then
the reason of his disappearence and of the employee who had the job
before him, due to the discovery of a sordid traffic of money.
Following this last
discovery, Henry has to fight for his life, which he manages to do.
The book finishes strangely on the arrival of Henry in England by
piloting an aiplane for the first time, with us not knowing what will
happen next.
The second novel I read was
entitled Hot Money. The story begins with the call of a family
father, Malcom Pembroke, married five times, to one of his son, named
Ian, aged 30. The two men didn't talk to each other since the father
slapped Ian. The father's last wife was killed recently, and he now
fears that someone might be trying to kill him. This suspicion is
confirmed when a car almost manages to crush Malcolm, saved to the
last second by his son's reflexes.
So, this one begins to think
about how to protect his father, which is quite hard, as his father
has an impulsive temper, and begins an investigation on who may be
trying to kill Malcolm in the family. Indeed, a lot of the family
members need money that Malcolm don't want to give them because he
thinks they have to deserve it. Moreover, Malcolm has recently spent
a lot of money ; though it is to win more, the other family
members are afraid that he will waste their inheritance. To conclude,
they also think that Ian, while accompanying his father, will try to
influence their father into giving him more money in the inheritance,
which makes the investigation more difficult for him. He first
entrusts Mr Norman West, an old private detective who was used by
Joyce, Ian's mother, to prove that Malcolm was deceiving her, with an
investigation. During this time, Ian and his father are getting to
know each other more, and his father is beginning to understand why
his son is fond of horses.
But the fact that his son
keeps him far from his house, to be out of reach of the other family
members, is making him homesick, and finally Ian accepts to come back
home without warning the other family members. But by the evening,
Ian notices something strange : some doors have been moved while
neither of him nor his father touched them. Ian, which fears for both
of their security, decides to sleep with his father in an hotel. The
day after, Ian and Malcolm discover with horror that he was right :
the house was destroyed by a bomb.
After the discovery of this
bombing, the police, which had suspected so far Malcolm to be the
cause of the death of Moira, is now getting serious over the supposed
threats to Malcolm's life and begins to investigate on the ruins of
the house to get hints over the possible amateur murderer, while Ian
puts his father in security in the U.S.A. and begins to talk with the
different members of the family, which he is allowed to thanks to a
fake clause he invents on his father's will. During the process, he
also disturbs their daily life by revealing their inner sufferings.
Then, he tries to attract
the killer in a trap : as he thinks that the person that tried
to kill Malcolm may have been the one who killed Moira, he entrusts
to his mother telling every member of the family that Moira may have
left the name of the visitor that killed her on her notepad. Then, he
and Malcolm are waiting for the murderer, which reveals to be Serena,
the daughter born from Alicia. Afraid of Malcolm's sudden appearance,
she accidentally makes the explosives she was carrying explode.
The story ends on Malcom's
final decision to give some money to his children and to build his
house again, in which he invites the whole family when it is
completely repared.
As far as my personnal
opinion is concernedon these two stories, I think that the two novels
are both built on the same scheme : in both of them, the main
character is a person coming from a rich family, jockey amateur with
some quality that will help her to solve a case (strong-mindedness,
work, caution, …) that is resolved at the end of the book.
I think that the mixing of
the mystery and investigation with the passion of the author for
horses and the evolution of the relations between the main character
and the other character creates something original and interesting
and makes the story much more realistic compared to classical
criminal novels. We see in the two novels different aspects of horse
riding.
The problem is, though, that
I found this mixing quite similar between the two stories, which
makes me think that I may have read all of the novels of the author
by reading one. The main characters in the two novels present common
aspects: both of them have a sense of justice, aren't interested in
money. I identify myself much more with the main character of the
first story, who is quiet and hard-working, than with the main
character of the second one.
The passion for horses has
also a very particular effect : though at first it adds a
surprising element to the story, then the reader accomodates with
these details and won't find them interesting anymore, unless he
himself is riding horses. I also think that there are too much
details of luxury in the second novel, it gives the reader the
impression of being a rich snob.
The second novel is much
more interesting in terms of suspense than the first one, as one of
the characters is continuously under death threat, but the first one
is much more rich in action, as there are fights and a big rush in
the end for the main chracter to save his own life.
The atmosphere of the two
stories are also quite different. While in the first one the main
character has a spirit of an adventurer, and meets several people
from very different locations, the persons met by the main character
of the second story are, for most of all, people of his family or
that he has known for a long time.
The rythm of the second
story is much more balanced than the first one : there are much
more scenes that makes the story progress than in the first one. The
time also passes differently in these two stories. While the story of
the first novel goes on several years, the story of the second novel
only lasts several weeks.
I also found the end of the
second novel much more conventional than the end of the first one :
in the first novel, the story ends on the arrival of Henry in an
airport, and we don't know what happens next, whereas Hot Money has a
kind of happy end.
Vocabulary :
Flying Finish :
to wince : grimacer
mildly : doucement
a snag :un
inconvénient, une difficulté
maudlin : larmoyant
callousness :
(psychologique) insensibilité, dureté
to snigger : rire sous
cape
Hot Money :
to be as thick as two
plaks : to be excessively stupid
rubble : décombres,
gravats
to squeak : (homme)
glapir
a tree stump : une
souche d'arbre
to be catty about :
être vache à propos de (se dit uniquement d'une femme)
to sneer : se moquer
