Hands Down

Product Information

Rewriting a lost review of Hands Down by Felix Francis. I accidentally touched a key that deleted it when I was almost finished. Bah! It happens to me a lot on Facebook and texting, too. I’m one of those techclutzy Baby Boomers😝 He keeps gathering evidence. One night he comes home to find two masked men getting ready to torch his house. The heroes aren't tortured by their lost loves or the fact that their whole families were murdered," James says. It’s not long before Sid finds himself looking into a conspiracy that is trying to rig races. I have read other books by Felix Francis but this is the first time I have met Sid Halley, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It was one of those books I couldn’t put down which was just what I needed. The pace is fast which for me I know is always a winner, the characters are well drawn, they are believable, three dimensional, I like the camaraderie between Sid’s ex Father in law Charles and Sis, and also his relationship with his friend Chico who is there for him when he needs help. Sid was missing his wife and daughter, but he also felt duty bound to sort out who was doing what to rig races. Who was behind it all? He managed to get one name but it was someone he hadn’t heard of, anyone who was involved was reluctant to talk through fear of what would happen.

Sid no longer has a prosthetic having had a successful hand transplant. Life should be looking good but things start to sour when his wife decides to go home to be with her mother when she finds out that her father is dying. She takes their nine year old daughter with her and Sid fears she will make it permanent. With this occupying his thoughts he isn't in a hurry to become involved with any investigation but the person making the plea is an old racing friend and Sid says yes. What follows is a complex, well-crafted puzzle. Corruption in the racing world isn't new but this scheme to rig races makes for a good story. I'll say no more for fear of spoilers. Sid is approached in a parking lot after a race by two thugs but is rescued by several partying soldiers out for the night. When a gray-haired man steps forward from the crowd claiming to be his father, Ned's life is thrown into far deeper turmoil. He'd been told since he was a baby that his parents had died in a car crash.Can Sid get to the bottom of what’s going on before he too becomes a victim, while, at the same time, saving his marriage?

Then there was Francis' portrayal of women, which was wildly progressive by the standards of the genre in the 1960s and 1970s. With Felix writing the books now, could they get in trouble for false advertising if they claimed otherwise? Felix has done a remarkable job of carrying on the series since the death of his father. The books are still fresh and exciting. The last two, including this one have dealt with mental illness or psychological problems. This one it's how someone reacts to a hand transplant. The last was anxiety. It's been a welcome addition to the books, giving another layer to the story. I have to say I like the current direction. Still, it's a pleasant journey down a familiar path, following Sid on his one-man, always-successful show to save British horse racing. Barely an hour later, his newly found father is stabbed by an unknown assailant in the Ascot parking lot. Blood oozing from his abdomen, his father warns Ned to 'be very careful.' But of whom? Of what? Ned finds himself in a race to solve his father's riddle - a race where coming in second could cost him more than even money - it could cost him his life...When I ask Felix about all the machinations and intrigue around who got credit for what, he seems uninterested, and mostly just happy to be carrying on the family business.