Review: Front Runner

Front Runner by Felix Francis
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Consider me confused. The book starts with a thrown race, and our hero investigates and spies on a man making bets. He figures out the man is making money through nefarious methods, which are explained in some level of detail. And then, the book goes off in a different direction, as if this first big mystery, which is left unsolved, was just to introduce some characters. The Francis method involves mixing plots involving horse racing with other well-researched topics. In the past that included glass blowing, computer hackers, the veterinarian business, and more. This one had that horse racing bit at the beginning, but pretty much left it behind for some focus on, where I to take a guess, international tax theft, the use of Google to search the internet, and, in general, the Cayman Islands, where, it is explained in the book, there is no horse racing. The horse racing content was sadly lacking beyond the first third of the book, and really made no sense anyway.

Another of what I'd call the Francis formula is to put your protagonist through torturous pain, repeatedly, and with descriptions that cause even the most ardent crime fiction readers to wince in solidarity. I don't think Felix quite has the skill here that his Dad had. Close, and will likely match it soon, but a smidge too clinical here.

So although I found the plot disconcerting, I find promise in the hero-torture. Boy, that doesn't sound right!

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