Gamble

The official title of this book is "'Dick Francis's Gamble" by Felix Francis. I'm not sure that title is properly punctuated, but that's not what interests me about it. I believe this is the first book (officially) by Felix Francis.
    As many people know, Dick Francis is my writing idol and all-time favorite writer; best writer in the world in my opinion (followed closely by Stephen King, who is an amazing writer, but not one of my favorites). Since his dad's death, Felix Francis has published four novels with both Dick Francis and Felix as authors.  Presumably his dad had started these books or written parts of them or possibly just had notes for them. Whatever the case, I have read each of them - and by most I was disappointed.
    The first one, Dead Heat, was good. Some of it I thought was very like Dick Francis and some I thought was not nearly as good as he would have written, but overall I enjoyed it. The next one I was not impressed with. Nor the one after. I started the third one and lost interest.
     Last week I picked up the latest, Gamble, and was delightedly surprised. It's not amazing; it's not written by Dick Francis. But it's really good. Not great, but I liked it very much. I am hoping, hoping, hoping that Felix has come into his own in his writing.
     I don't know how much of his dad's writing he had to work with for these five books, but except for the first one they didn't feel like Dick Francis novels at all. Not that I think Felix should write like his dad. Stephen King's son, Joe Hill, is a great writer - but his writing is nothing like his dad's, which I feel is a good thing. However, I have held hope that Felix did share some of his dad's writing ability and that I would enjoy his books.
     I am now looking forward to the next one. If his writing continues to be strong, I also hope Felix will be able to leave his dad's name off the title and create a following of readers on his own.


www.daylightsend.weebly.com
www.trustindarkness.weebly.com