Even Money

Even Money is one of the Dick Francis novels written in his late period with his son Felix's collaboration. The protagonist Ned Talbot is a London bookmaker working the rails at Royal Ascot when an old man approaches him claiming to be his father, who has supposedly been dead since Ned was a year old. Within minutes of the conversation the man is murdered.

The bookmaking material is the pleasure. Francis (with or without Felix) is at home in the racing-economy details: the betting ring, the on-course bookmakers and their joints, the relationship between the bookies and the tax authorities and the layers above them. The mystery itself involves Ned's actual family history and a long-running fraud.

The collaborative voice is slightly less crisp than peak Dick Francis, but the procedural pleasures are intact. Four stars. Recommended for Francis fans and for readers who want their thrillers set in particular working economies.