Decider

Lee Morris is an unlikely hero for a Francis novel since he is married and has six sons, but he nevertheless lives up to the Francis standard. He is a quiet, thoughtful man, intelligent, of course, who is able to take control of a difficult situation and bring it to a successful conclusion. If this seems a bit stodgy, it isn't at all. There is Francis' usual drama and action, breathtaking at points, and a very satisfying ending. A super read!

This is the first Dick Francis I've read in about 15 years, having started nearly 40 years ago. This one is well up to par and is as gripping and well researched as all the others.

One of the things readers like about Dick Francis mysteries is the caliber of his heroes. They're nice guys, strong, the sort many women always wish they could meet and fall in love with. With the same regularity, his villains are cruel, often psychotic, and hate other people, the hero in particular. This by no means makes them stick figure characters. On the contrary, they are quite complicated individuals and believable. In Decider, we meet Lee Morris, architect, whose marriage has fallen apart from the inside. Nonetheless, he and his wife, Amanda, have six children, all boys, with one about a year old. In spite of her falling out of love with him, they are still attracted to each other, and she loves having children. Lee's adventure begins when he takes the five oldest boys off on an adventure, mixed with business. He inherited shares in a racetrack from his mother which were given to her by her former father-in-law, Lord Stratton, whose son, Keith, was her first husband and no relation to Lee. Keith was abusive and raped his wife, resulting in the birth of her first child. Therein lies the root of the story of Decider. When Lee decides to attend a shareholders meeting, he finds that all but one of the other shareholders are members of the Stratton family and none too happy to see him. Especially Keith, whose murderous rages are legendary. As is usual with Francis's stories, Lee takes a terrible beating, but survives with the help of new friends and his sons. And when the grandstands at the racetrack are sabotaged, he has a mystery to solve. Ensuring at all times that his sons are safe, Lee pursues the past events of the Stratton family, ferreting out more than he bargained for. Not everything turns out well in the end in this novel, true to Francis's style. But all of the loose ends are tied up logically and the reader comes away likiing Lee, his sons, and even a few of his new extended family. And it seems that Lee won't be able to extricate himself from them for some time. There are many Dick Francis mysteries for the reader who likes this novel. Most of them are also on tape. For an American flavor, readers might also like Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy mysteries.

Dick Francis has a winning formula: he writes books about a young man of around 30, in a career most people might think is boring, but which turns out to be exciting. His hero is usually taken for granted and under-appreciated by his family, and under-employed, but in the course of the book proves he is far smarter, cleverer, and more observant than anyone supposed. Usually, there's a highly intelligent middle-aged career woman who recognizes his worth and helps him along. It's a formula, but the details that Francis provides makes it work every time.In this book, our hero is an architect and builder. We find him almost finished with his latest restoration project - he and his family move into a place, restore it, sell it, and move on. This time, however, the family wants to stay put. Even though only in his 30's, our hero has six sons, and wonderful kids they are, too. Perhaps a little too good to be true, but hey, this *is* fiction.Lee and his sons are travelling around in a large motor home, one converted from a more utilitarian large vehicle. We find that the motor home is made efficient by building it using yacht-building techniques, so that the most possible stuff can be put in the least space. Francis has used yacht-building in some of his other books (for example, Risk), and it was interesting to see the same thing here. Apart from Lee's wife, who doesn't really appreciate him, we also have Lee's family on his mother's side, from which he has been estranged, and most of whom outright hate him. Of course, by the end of the book, he has won respect from a few of them. The matriarch of that clan is a cunning old lady, with a whim of iron; her assorted offspring and their offspring are a wide bunch of eccentrics, and the descriptions of them will remind one of why the British aristocracy has such a reputation for eccentricity. The youngest son accompanying Lee is a smart kid, and listening to him point out common sense, or bits of chemical or physics trivia, to adults who know nothing but horses, is amusing. Maybe a little too good to be true, but Francis nonetheless makes him seem like a real little boy, so we can almost wish that real little boys were like this!

As an avid reader of Dick Francis novels, I can easily say this is one of his best. If I could talk with the author, I would tell him how much I loved Lee Morris and his sons. I would ask if we could have them return in another novel. As fast as this action packed suspense story had me turning the pages, I felt bereft at the end because Lee and the boys were no longer in my life! Dick Francis uses steeplechase jockeys, horses and settings for his books which provide an interesting background for the story's premise. But his art is in placing his character into both danger and moral dilemma. It is also his style to provide the reader with a hero who could be anybody. A hero only because circumstances made him become one. Anyone loving suspense and the chase should read this. Dick Francis is terrific!