[Because it sticks more to racing than some of his other novels, Dick Francis's Whip Hand] is happily up to standard. The style is confident, the prose direct, the characterization and dialogue convincing. (p. 95)
[Sid Halley, ex-jockey and private investigator,] is a typically mean, embittered Francis hero, who has lost a hand in a racing smash when at the top of the jockey's list; he has to contend, too, with a ruined marriage and a bitchy ex-wife. Every Francis hero bears a grudge of some sort against the world, whether it be from natural or other causes. Francis himself has said that he finds it easier to write of such characters because it helps to build up the tension and provide motivation. Halley, like the others, has an account to square. The villains are—as in Fleming's books—corrupt, evil and sadistic; mainly establishment or semi-establishment figures whose lusts for power and money have totally twisted them. For them the racing game is an instrument for social revenge, or a means to an illegal fortune.
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