By using the first person narrative technique, Francis makes Derek Franklin the focal point and achieves an immediacy of reader involvement with the hero's problems that would not otherwise occur. Further, there is a minimum of introductory exposition: Straight opens with Franklin caught up in a major crisis that involves not only his brother's death but also a threat to his own life. As a result of Greville's death, Derek finds himself in an unfamiliar milieu: a steeplechase jockey who has inherited a wholesale gemstone marketing business. He moves between these two worlds — old and new, familiar and unfamiliar — with ease, confidence, and courage, although he must confront physical, moral, and ethical challenges in both.

By the end of the novel, he has broadened the range of his experiences, has learned about gemstones and how to engage in international commerce, and has suffered more injuries to...