But what saves them from being insufferable bores is a sense of humor and modesty, characteristics much in evidence with David Cleveland. They are men connected to horse racing, but often tangentially, and they are intelligent, hard working, sober fellows with a good head on their shoulders. The main characters in Francis' books may have different names, but they share many of the same characteristics. Praise for the writing of Dick Francis: 'Dick Francis is a wonder.' The Plain Dealer 'Few things are more convincing than Dick Francis at a full gallop.' Chicago Tribune 'Few match Francis for dangerous flights of fancy and pure inventive menace.' Boston Herald 'Francis has the uncanny ability to turn out simply plotted yet. There is a larger spectrum of idiosyncratic characters, and the unusual Norwegian setting has apparently given Francis the freedom to open-up his characters to fairly extreme eccentricities, including a sex while dancing scene that was simply odd. The individual scenes, and particularly the verbal battles between Cleveland and the various jockeys, cops, breeders and insufferable owners are, as usual with Francis, the gems in this book. The unusual slice of this milieu explored in the book is Norwegian horse racing, though we see almost nothing of the racing itself, and instead are presented with the personalities that David Cleveland, our narrator and inspector, must interview in order to figure out Who Stole the Money and Who Killed the Jockey. All of his books revolve around the world of horse racing, in all its tangents. Dick Francis is a unusual mystery writer in his repetition of setting instead of detective.
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