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Shattered, by Dick Francis
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After his friend is killed in a horse-racing accident, up-and-coming glass artisan Gerard Logan finds himself embroiled in a deadly search for a stolen videotape--a videotape that just might destroy his own life.
- Sales Rank: #753269 in Books
- Published on: 2005-03-01
- Released on: 2005-03-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.80" h x .70" w x 4.20" l, .28 pounds
- Binding: Mass Market Paperback
- 256 pages
Amazon.com Review
After 41 novels, most writers run out of energy before the final gallop. But Dick Francis's latest thriller is as good as his earliest. Perhaps it's because this one is dedicated to the Queen Mother, who celebrated her centennial in 2000, and who, like her famously horsey daughter, shares Francis's passion for the races. Or maybe he's just found his stride again, after a few less-than-outstanding starts. Here he does one of his best tricks: lures you into a somewhat arcane area you might know little about and explicates it so brilliantly that you don't even realize how much you've learned (in this case, about glass blowing) while a mystery is unraveled, a crime is solved, and the hero gets the girl.
This time the mise en scène is the glass blowing studio owned by Gerard Logan, friend of the late Martin Stukely, a jockey who takes a fatal fall at the Cheltenham steeplechase during the last race of the century. Still mourning Martin, Gerard is savagely beaten, his workshop ransacked, and his life threatened by a gang of thugs. Investigating, Gerard discovers that the gang includes a domineering woman who's the daughter of Martin's valet and a scientist who's stolen valuable data from the laboratory that formerly employed him. They believe Gerard has possession of a videotape entrusted to him by Martin before his death and that the secrets on the tape are worth Gerard's life.
It's a good set up, with just enough of the usual horse lore and a pleasant love story involving Gerard and a pretty policewoman, neither of which overshadow the taut pacing and the well-worked-out plot. Francis's protagonists may be accidental heroes, but they're not antiheroes; they're usually eminently decent, likable men, and their sense of self is always interesting. Here's Gerard at home, in a break from the action, thinking about the new woman in his heart in a typical Francis love scene: I walked deliberately through all the rooms, thinking about Catherine, wondering both if she would like the place, and whether the house would accept her in return. Once in the past the house had delivered a definite thumbs-down, and once I'd been given an ultimatum to smother the pale plain walls with brightly patterned paper as a condition of marriage, but to the horror of her family I'd backed out of the whole deal, and, as a result, I now used the house as arbiter and had disentangled myself from a later young woman who'd begun to refer to her and me as "an item" and to reply to questions as "we." We think. No, we don't think. And, a few pages later, The speed of development of strong feeling for one another didn't seem to me to be shocking but natural, and if I thought about the future it unequivocally included Catherine Dodd. "If you want to cover the pale plain walls with brightly patterned paper, go ahead," I said.
She laughed. "I like the peace of pale walls. Why should I want to change them?" It may be Francis's English reticence that keeps him, mercifully, from spoiling a good mystery with what other writers consider the obligatory sex scene, or it just may be the mastery of his form that few of his peers approach. In every page of this terrific new book, he's at the top of it. --Jane Adams
From Publishers Weekly
Francis's latest may be one of his less memorable rides, but even at 80, the old master proves he can still go all out in the final stretch. The hero here is Gerard Logan, a dashing English bachelor who owns and operates his own glassblowing shop in a charming village in the Cotswolds, popular with other artisans and tourists. Logan's problem is that his good friend, jockey Martin Stukely, gave him a videotape shortly before dying in a fall during a steeplechase at Cheltenham racetrack. That videotape is now missing, stolen by a tall, bearded gent who made off with it while Logan's back was turned. Now, a crew of thugs wants the tape. They are led by the cruel, aptly named Rose Payne, a ruthless bookmaker who knows what's on the tapeAmedical breakthrough secrets worth millionsAand will do anything to get it. Logan tries to reason with Payne, saying he no longer has the video, and besides, he doesn't even know what it contains. But Rose won't give up. She and her crew beat up Logan on several occasions, viciously trying to break his wrists so he can no longer practice his craft. Logan, no slouch when it comes to payback, finally mounts an all-out defense that includes not only physical reprisals, but also a crafty recovery of the missing object. Francis's 41st novel (To the Hilt; 10 Lb Penalty; etc.) lacks the pounding drive of his best efforts, and several elements of the plot are hard to swallow without cutting the author a lot of slack. Yet the spirited repartee, cleverly laid cues, infectiously likable characters and bang-up finale are all vintage Francis, and the fascinating glimpses the novel furnishes into the glassblowing trade are a bonus. 300,000 first printing. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Gerard Logan is given a package containing an unlabeled videotape left to him by his friend, the late Martin Stukely, a renowned jockey who had just been killed by a fall during a trophy race at Cheltenham Races. However, before Logan can see what's on the tape, it's stolen. He thinks it was just taken when his shop was robbed, as the shop's cash was gone, too. When he finds that Stukely's house has been burglarized and every videotape there missing, he begins to wonder what was on this mysterious video. But, as the attacks on Logan continue and accelerate in violence, it looks like the only way to save himself is to find the lost tape. Excellently read by Martin Jarvis, Shattered is an entertaining mystery from start to finish, the kind of story we've come to expect from the three-time Edgar Award-winning Francis. Sure to be popular with mystery fans; highly recommended for all public libraries. Theresa Connors, Arkansas Tech Univ., Russellville
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Not His Best Work
By M. Hummel
To start, I should say that I've been reading Dick Francis for twenty-five years, give or take a couple. I think I've read each and every one of his forty or so books, and have read most two or three times.
Francis started out writing strictly horsey mysteries--jockeys, trainers, stablehands, owners, then moved out further and further into other professional and personal worlds, all the while maintaining some link to British horse racing. The clump of books in the sixties, including Nerve, Enquiry, Dead Cert, and Forfeit really pulse with that best of the writer's creations, a world, a walk of life, fully realized. Clearly, Francis was writing from his own knowledge of a world he'd known intimately as a jockey in the fifties, and of which he was still a part.
In the Seventies, Francis did a wise thing--with able research assistance from his wife (I apologize for blanking on her name at the moment--she has recently passed on, by the way), he linked other occupations (inventor, photographer, hostage negotiator, portrait painter, accountant) to racing in a seamless way that made us feel we were now walking through two worlds. By the time he wrote Reflex in the early eighties, he had added intricate plot twists (always a feature, actually) and strong, complex character development and interaction (a bit more than his classic stoic loner who stood the test through so many of the first two decades of novels) to his repertoire. The Eighties books--Reflex, Break-in, Bolt, The Danger, Hot Money, Banker, Twice Shy, etc., are the work of an author maintaining his peak for a surprising length of time.
But now we have seen the nineties and are into the two-thousands. Second Wind and Shattered represent the decline of a real craftsman. The villains have cruder, less plausible motivations-Francis was never one for subtle villains (except, maybe Risk), but now they are cartoon characters, full of obsession and menace. The technical writing skill is there but there are outlandish plots married to it (especially Second Wind!). The twists are less sophisticated, the romances too easy, the main character's inner conflict not as palpable. And the classic Francis ingredient, horses, is barely there.
Shattered is not worth your money--but go back to the sixties and seventies and eighties, and feast on a master. Or buy Field of Thirteen, his collection of short stories, which show a more subtle witty side of Dick Francis--a wonderful showcase for some other talents he held back in his more mainstream, blockbuster work.
For thirty-five years, Francis was a true craftsman, capable of real inspiration at times, and always a satisfying read. I'm afraid I can't say that any longer. Everyone slows down; I give him thanks for a wonderful body of work.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
One fence short
By James C. Coomer
Dick Francis has said that this is his last novel. I am glad. The tightly woven, racetrack oriented stories of the early Francis gradually disappeared as he tried to create racing stories around other interests, i.e., hurricanes and glass blowing. Contrary to the dust cover, Shattered is as scattered as Second Wind. After we leave the race track at page 7, we enter into the world of glassblowing with an improbable, and often inexplicable, group of characters. The primary antagonist, a sadistic woman, is simply presented to us without a clue as to how or why she is without any redeeming qualities. She is just mean. Why does Gerard Logan allow himself to be beaten up, nearly disabled for life, yet remain reluctant to involve the police?
This novel, like recent ones, seems to have been written for a deadline and, consequently, does not exibit the serious editorial work that could have cleared up several inconsistencies.
I am afraid Dick Francis has given all he has to give. He came out of the gate strong. The last several fences put his off his stride.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
"Shattered", A Dick Francis Mystery Thriller
By Priscilla Stafford
Gerard Logan is a glass artisan, more generally called a glass-blower. He has what you might call a normal life. But things are just about to get hot when his jockey friend, Martin Stukely, dies in steeplechase accident. From then on, Gerard finds himself involved in a deadly search for a valuable videotape. Martin was the last person who had the tape, now the bad guys think that Gerard have it. And they would do anything to get it. The thing is, Gerard has no idea what the videotape contains, let alone understand the priceless information it contains. Gerard must try to solve the mystery of the videotape, while at the same time trying to survive...
I was very surprised to see the low ratings this book was getting from other reviewers. For my part, I enjoyed this book immensely! It might have something to do with this being only my third book to read of Dick Francis' while others have read many of his books. But still, I just thoroughly enjoy the flavor of Dick Francis' books. Especially when you read the first line of his book:
"Four of us drove together to Cheltenham races on the day that Martin Stukely died there from a fall in a steeplechase."
Francis just cuts right to the point and begins the story right off, which for me, immediately grabs my attention. From then on, he plunges you into a story worth the read with intrigue, mystery, romance, action, and wit.
Gerard Logan is the usual Francis character; young, bright, likable, and clearly a very nice chap. He also is as curious as anyone can be. There is also the usual love interest, in this book the detective constable Catherine Dodd. Beautiful and also very smart, she too is incredibly likable. In "Shattered", there is one magical moment where Gerard is captivated and inspired by Catherine's beauty to make a dynamic glass sculpture. I thought that Francis wrote that part very well.
And of course there are the bad guys, whom I won't reveal except that 'beware of Blackmask 4'! But the few of the most enjoyable characters whom I liked were Gerard's bodyguards. There's Worthington a chauffeur who watches over Gerard, the actual 'bodyguard' Tom Pigeon with his three Dobermans, and Gerard's taxi driver, Jim.
My only complaint of the book is the bit disappointing ending, I wish it was a bit different. But "Shattered" is still satisfying. As usual, Dick Francis cleverly weaves into the tale a bit of horse racing, steeple chasing. And adding glass blowing into the plot was pretty cool. I must admit that I now find glass making a bit more interesting and fascinating than, I was at first skeptical as to whether you can actual put glass blowing into a mystery thriller.
So if you've never read any of Dick Francis' books, I suggest you to pick up "Shattered" if you get a chance. But if you've read any of Francis' other books, I can't honestly tell you how good it is compared to them. You'll just have to see. "Shattered" is mostly for older teenagers and adults, due to some violence, some language, and some innuendo.
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