Plot or Premise

A collection of thirteen short stories, eight of which were published previously in various magazines.

What I Liked

• Dead on Red – A contract killer kills a jockey for another jockey, but the results are not quite what the surviving jockey had desired. (4.00/5.00)
• Song for Mona – A snobbish daughter is ashamed of her mother’s life and history while others find her charming and praise her. (4.00/5.00)
• Collision Course – An editor loses his job and runs into snobs who won’t let him park his boat at their restaurant while he has dinner with three publishers. Turns out the owner is a up-and-comer who needs to win an upcoming race in order to attract horses to his farm. An interesting battle develops. (4.00/5.00)
• Carrot for a Chestnut – Fixing a race by doping the horse with a doctored carrot. With a great twist at the end. (3.50/5.00)
• Blind Chance – A man has a perfect way to know the outcomes of photo-finish races, and to make money on it. Until disaster strikes. (4.00/5.00)
• Corkscrew – An honest man is charged with a crime and his lawyer swindles his parents out of the bail money. He doesn’t count on the road to justice being long and windy. (3.75/5.00)
• The Day of the Losers — Money from an old robbery is the glue that holds this story together as the police attempt to fix a race in order to catch a crook. There are twists all around at the end. (3.50/5.00)
• Haig’s Death – All the people who have their fates resting on the outcome of a race are all affected when the decision falls to the judge, whose fate has already been decided. Multiple storylines all lead to a combined finish. (3.50/5.00)

What I Didn’t Like

• Raid at Kingdom Hill – A bomb scare at the racetrack, and money goes missing during the chaos. (2.00/5.00)
• Bright White Star – The theft of a horse from an auction and a wandering tramp who is displaced from his home on the land…includes a great set-up/intro though — “Write us a story,” they said. I asked, “What about?” “About three thousand words,” they replied. (2.00/5.00)
• Nightmare – A horse thief is running from his past where his father was killed during a theft. (2.50/5.00)
• The Gift – A down-and-out alcoholic journalist finds the horseracing story of the century, but may be too drunk to write it. (2.00/5.00)
• Spring Fever – A woman falls in love with her jockey and is taken advantage of, at first. (2.50/5.00)

The Bottom Line

An average Francis collection.