Product Description

A successful painter who loves going to the track finds himself in the biggest race of his life as he works to clear his cousin's name-and trap a ruthless killer before the killer traps him.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62378 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780425209585
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
The horses age painted ones this time, but stop worrying. You won't have a moment to miss the hooves and the muck. Charles Todd, master of equine portraiture, stumbles on a pattern: visitors to Australia purchase horse pictures and, in no time at all, their homes are burglarized. In the case of Todd's kinsman, the burglary also involves murder, so it's Down Under for the Franciscan confrontation between a resourceful loner and a ruthless crime-conglomerate. Action, character, and color ride in perfect balance again (last year's High Stakes teetered a bit), and the "Am I my brother's keeper?" motif returns in subtle high gear, just to remind us that Francis stays on top because he remembers to touch bottom. (Kirkus Reviews) --online

From the Inside Flap
Charles Todd is an English artist, well-known for his renderings of sleek and athletic horses. But what he sees at his brother's he cannot capture on canvas. His sister-in-law has been murdered, and his brother is the prime suspect. Todd sudenly finds himself in a dangerous manhunt as he searches for an elusive killer who paints his own picture of mayhem....

About the Author
Dick Francis has written forty-one international bestsellers and is widely acclaimed as one of the world's finest thriller writers. His awards include the Crime Writer's Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the crime genre, and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Tufts University of Boston. In 1996 Dick Francis was made a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master for a lifetime's achievement and in 2000 he recieved a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

Customer Reviews

Artists, art thieves, and counterfeiters
Dick Francis is one of those rare authors who can create a multitude of characters, changing characters from one novel to the next. This makes the stories stand-alone novels which can be read independently. That is a marked contrast to authors who write series of novels about the same character, a practice that often requires reading an entire series to understand the characters.

The present novel is not exactly a whodunit because you can identify the guilty parties (or most of them) early in the game. The main plot is how to track them down and bring them to justice. The chase runs from England to Australia to New Zealand then back to Australia. As usual with this author, there are horses and racing involved including, in this case, the Melbourne Cup. There is an interesting system for placing bets.

The main character, Charles Todd, is an artist who paints oil paintings of horses. There is some interesting side information about the chemical deterioration of oil paints on older paintings, an area where most people are probably not well informed. There is also considerable information about counterfeit paintings. Let the buyer beware. The death of his cousin Donald's wife during a burglary sets Todd on the chase. The main story is fast action over a couple weeks.

Learn about Art from Francis
Another Francis: A quick, exciting read, with characters it is fun to envy, but probably not fun to be in real life, the right number of plot twists and turns, and a shocking set-up. The hero, called Charles Neil Todd here, though really the same character as in other Francises, walks in on his cousin just after the latter has called the police to a burglary and then discovered his wife battered to death. In order to rescue him from the clutches of the police, who consider him a suspect, Todd tracks a curious coincidence in his cousin's recent past. Led to Australia, to the company of a welcoming old friend ~ and his not so welcoming, new wife ~ Todd investigates and, after some beatings and other frights, resolves the coincidences, solving the burglary and, probably, the murder. The racing is only incidentally important ~ much action occurs on a racecourse, around a big race, but could be anywhere ~ the main importance is that Todd and Jik, his friend, are painters ~ Todd of horses, mainly, Jik of living, lasting abstracts ~ which aids them in the investigation of art fraud, galleries, copies and copiers. Just for the few hours a Francis takes to read, but completely for those hours, i am carried away into another world, other surroundings. And, as always with Francis, i come away wanting to know more about his particular interest ~ here the painting of Todd and Jik, but also Australia itself; can it be as fascinating as Francis paints it?

Francis at his best
Dick Francis has written nearly 40 novels now, and In the Frame is in the top 7 or 8 as far as I'm concerned. The hero actually remains a bit of a cipher, but his friend Jik and his wife are two of Francis's really good characters. The information about painting and Australia is interesting, the ongoing joke about betting is pretty funny, and all kinds of images come to mind when I think back on this novel--a spot of breaking and entering while a famous race is detailed on the radio, Jik's wife and her purse, a handful of narrow escapes, the landscape down under. The mystery is good and the humor and wit are sharp.

I'm glad to see that this is being reprinted again--it's one of Dick Francis's best novels, and a good place to start for those who have never read a Francis novel before.