Even Money - Dick Francis & Felix Francis




The plot of this book revolves around horse racing and it is written by an erstwhile star jockey. I feared that the book will be too technical for someone who does not even fully understand how the betting odds work. But Even Money was such a breezy book that I felt as if I was reading a Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew book for grown ups.

The protagonist of this book is Ned Talbot, an independent bookmaker who sets shop in all major horse races in England. One day, a man turns up and tells him that he is his father..the father whom Ned was told by his grand parents that he died 37 years ago. And promptly, before the astonished Ned could exchange more than a few skeptical sentences with the new found father, the father gets murdered. Why? By whom? And what does Ned do about it? This is the gist of the book.

The book has very limited set of major characters. Ned's wife, Sophie, who is battling mental illness. Ned's partner Luca, his apprentice Douglas. The relationship between the protagonist and these characters are brought out well. Especially the one between Ned and Sophie. The authors have beautifully written about the illness plaguing Sophie and how Ned feels about it. But other than that, most of the side characters have very little to say. Seriously.

So much of the book is about the bookies and the punters and how the whole racing bets work. No wonder Dick Francis has set his plot in the racing premises. I will be honest here and say that I happily skipped some of the technical details about the whole racing thing and just got on with the plot. But as I said before, the author has managed to not make the book boring by overloading us with all that he knows about horse racing. 

The book was a perfect reading material for the end of a long work day. The book has four subplots that are tied up at the end perfectly. But, there are no complexities or depth in the book to make you think, wonder or feel amazed. Still, it is a good jolly read and you end up learning a bit about horse racing from a master of the game :)

PS: There is also a movie called Even Money! I never knew :) And that movie is not based on this novel ;)

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