His dialogue captures the nuances of class and region as he throws together the echelons of equine sports: owners, trainers, jockeys, stable lads, bookmakers, and touts.
His basic formula is predictable: competent stoics, out of love or loyalty or a sense of fair play and decency, are forced to come to terms with a hidden evil, one at first only suspected but then clearly defined by injury or death. His heroes must face physical pain or psychological trauma and must summon up their inner strength, their resilience, and their sheer grit to unravel the mystery, save their friends, prove themselves, or simply defeat evil. His villains are always motivated by greed or insanity, or, as in Break In (1985), both. Despite his standard approach, Francis's works are never the same. His plots remain fresh, unexpected, solid. They move forward briskly, with an admirable sense of timing, and are lent variety by his interweaving of racing and other concerns: mining, photography, banking, computer science, aviation, accounting, art, antiques, yachting, private investigation, acting, and the wine business.
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