Review: Dead Heat

Dead Heat by Dick Francis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Francis formula has been to combine some aspect of horse racing with a deep dive into another career or hobby or realm of technology. Those ingredients were (almost) always mixed together and wrapped around a mystery. Here, we get very little of the horse racing details that he’s covered in other books. Instead, this dives into the life of a famous chef and restauranteur. I enjoyed the deep dive into the world of cooking professionally, but I also enjoyed the deep dive into the operation of a restaurant. Both of these aspects of a career were covered well, were interesting, and I actually feel I learned some things. I didn’t miss the “inside baseball” of horse racing as much as I would have thought.

Another part of the Francis formula is that his protagonist often survives torturous injury. Here it happens, with descriptions that may bother the squeamish, at least three times. This one really goes through the ringer. But in an unusual move for a Francis protagonist, there is a girlfriend. I found this story worked for me. It was enjoyable. Given this was one of the early ones with Felix’s name on the cover, along with his father, I wonder which one did more of the writing…


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