SOURCE: "Off-Track Villainy," in The New York Times Book Review, December 3, 1989, p. 32.

In the following review, Stasio asserts that while Francis's Straight is well-researched, the sections about horse racing are more compelling than the scenes about gemstones.

During the years that Dick Francis rode steeplechase jumps for the Queen Mother, he broke his collarbone a dozen times, fractured multiple ribs and dislocated, sprained, wrenched, twisted and smashed so many other parts of his anatomy that he lost count. It was while recuperating from one of these injuries, in fact, that the onetime champion rider took up writing as a hobby.

Today, 32 years and 28 novels later, the British author can still describe in wincing detail the pain of a broken ankle and the boredom that can send an injured jockey hobbling around on crutches in search of something to occupy his mind. Something like a good adventure with a...