| Title | : | Proof |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 042520393X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780425203934 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 368 |
| Publication | : | First published September 24, 1984 |
| Awards | : | Japan Adventure Fiction Association Prize 日本冒険小説協会大賞特別賞 Best Translated Novel (1986) |
Proof Reviews
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This is one of the better novels from Dick Francis. Like a few of the others in the series, this one is only loosely set in the world of horseracing, and the protagonist, Tony Beach, is not a jockey but rather a wine merchant. He owns a small shop and has spent the last six months grieving for his wife who built up the shop with him and then died of an aneurysm while six months pregnant.
Beach is simply going through the motions of living, opening his store, dealing with customers and occasionally supplying the liquor for various parties. On a Sunday afternoon, he's catering the liquor for a party thrown by a successful horse trainer. A lot of important guests have gathered for the event, which is being held in a large tent on the grounds of the trainer's home.
As the party gets under way, the trainer's principal assistant approaches Beach with a problem. One of the owners who has several horses with the trainer also owns a restaurant. The trainer and his assistant had dinner there recently as guests of the restaurant owner. The assistant is concerned because he believes that someone is fiddling with the liquor served at the restaurant. The man ordered an expensive Scotch whisky after dinner, but was served something decidedly inferior that had apparently been substituted for the whisky that was supposed to be in the bottle.
The assistant fears that someone may be cheating the restaurant owner, and he asks Beach if he would be willing to go to the restaurant and order the whisky to confirm his suspicions. Then he can delicately approach the owner and inform him of the problem. However, as they are discussing the matter, a horse van breaks loose, apparently accidentally, rolls down a long hill, and smashes into the tent where the party is being held, killing a few guests and injuring others. Among the dead is the restaurant owner.
Beach now finds himself assisting a firm of investigators, and the police as well, in a wide-ranging investigation involving mislabeled wine and spirits. It turns out to be a very dangerous assignment, given that there are some powerful adversaries who will stop at nothing to protect the racket they've perfected.
Readers will recognize Tony Beach as a typical Francis protagonist--apparently quiet and unassuming, but underneath the mild exterior, a man who is smart and tough as nails when the going gets rough. The plot moves along well, and the details of the liquor business that one picks up along the way are interesting too. All in all, a pleasant way to spend an evening. -
An above average ‘mystery’ with an unassuming hero. It was a breath of fresh air to have a hero who wasn’t great at everything and a fairly solid story that entertained. I did feel the wine and whisky tasting were stretched out a bit too much, but I enjoyed the read.
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What is there to say about Dick Francis? As I think about all of his books (yes, this review covers all of his books, and yes I've read them all) I think about a moral ethical hero, steeped in intelligence and goodness embroiled in evil machinations within British horse racing society - either directly or indirectly. The heroes aren't always horse jockies, they can be film producers, or involve heroes engaged in peripheral professions that somehow always touch the horse racing world.
But more than that, Francis's heroes are rational human beings. The choices made are rational choices directed by a firm objective philosophy that belies all of Francis's novels. The dialogue is clear and touched with humor no matter the intensity of evil that the hero faces. The hero's thoughts reveal a vulnerability that is touching, while his actions are always based on doing the right thing to achieve justice.
Causing the reader to deeply care about the characters in a novel is a difficult thing to do. No such worries in a Francis novel. The point of view is first person, you are the main character as you read the story (usually the character of Mr. Douglas). The hero is personable, like able, non-violent but delivering swift justice with his mind rather than through physical means. This is not to say that violence is a stranger to our hero. Some of it staggering and often delivered by what we would think of normal persons living in British society.
You will come to love the world of Steeple Chase racing, you will grow a fondness for horses, stables, trainers and the people who live in that world. You will read the books, devouring one after the other and trust me Dick Francis has a lot of novels (over 40 by my last count).
There are several series woven into the fabric of Francis's work: notably the Sid Halley and Kit Fielding series.
Assessment: Dick Francis is one of my favorite writers. I read his books with a fierce hunger that remains insatiable and I mourn his death. -
The young colts stuck out their necks and strove to be the first as they would have done in a wild herd on an unrailed plain, the primaeval instinct flashing there undiluted on the civilised track. The very essence of racing, I thought. The untamed force that made it all possible. Exciting, moving ... beautiful.
A safe bet with Dick Francis is that he will somehow work an angle in his books that mentions his first and enduring love for horses and racing, even when the subject of the story is from an entirely different field of activity.
What exactly do racing and wine selling have in common? You might argue that there is heavy drinking involved, both in celebration of victory or in disappointment over failure. Trainers drink after a long day on the moors or to soften the owners who come to ask about their horses. Sponsors in private viewing boxes serve champagne and hard liquor to their guests. The crowds assault the beer stands in between races and betting. Alcohol greases the wheels of enterprise and entertainment. And this is where Tony Beach enters the picture.
He owns a small wine boutique in a village from the middle of the racing world [in Berkshire, I think]. He sells directly in the shop or delivers at home and, occasionally, he caters for private events.
Tony Beach comes from local gentry preoccupied with horses, in particular his mother who is a Master of the Hunt, a particularly British institution. His father, an army officer decorated for courage beyond the call of duty, died prematurely in a steeplechase accident, leaving deep scars on the mind of his son.
Suspecting that he lacks the courage of his father and grandfather, Tony seeks an occupation that will not put his mettle to the test. He likes to fade into the background, be pleasant and informative to customers and to avoid confrontations. His career choice was unplanned and arose from a holiday near Bordeaux where, instead of polishing his language skills, Tony discovers a talent for wine tasting and a wine merchant who offers to apprentice him in the trade.
Years later, Tony’s boutique does well enough for his modest needs, which includes building up the house of their dreams for his wife. It all comes crashing down when she dies from pregnancy complications. Life can be cruel even to those who try to hide away from conflict and trouble. Conflict and trouble who return with a vengeance as Tony returns to work and tries to pick up the broken pieces of his dreams.
The novel debuts with an uncharacteristically gory scene for a Dick Francis thriller. Multiple guests at an annual end of season celebration held by a successful owner die when a runaway heavy vehicle crashes into the tent hosting the lunch party. Tony Beach, who provided drinks and glassware to the event, is surprised on the outside at the key moment of the accident.
The need to act in order to help the injured force the man to overcome his reticence. Subsequent police investigations reveal another hidden talent of our wine merchant: he has a photographic memory and a keen eye for details about people, a way of reading their minds that is helpful in his wine trade.
Initially, I thought the main plot will be the investigation of the incident as a planned terrorist attack, since among the victims were a wealthy sheikh and his bodyguards. However, the plot thickens considerably when Tony visits a local restaurant owned by another victim, where complaints about watered whisky and counterfeit wine bottles are frequent. Once again, Tony’s particular talents come into play, this time his ability to identify import wines in a blind tasting.
He said, ‘You sell knowledge, don’t you, as much as wine?’
‘Yeah. And pleasure. And human contact. Anything you can’t get from a supermarket.’
Without getting into spoilerish revelations, Tony gets his hands full with additional tasks when his friends ask for a little help with training horses for the hospitalized host of the party, continue his liquor tasting in every bar from the county and even investigate some missing tankers that carry – guess what? – raw whisky from Scottish distilleries to English bottlers.
Our hero’s life gets so interesting that he gets mugged, shot at, burglarized and chased at gunpoint around an empty racetrack. All this before he has the faintest idea what kind of viper’s nest he has stirred.
>>><<<>>><<<
Proof is one of the best titles in a very long list that includes extremely few real duds, but numerous copycats of a successful formula. Francis recycles a lot of his basic plots and uses a limited number of stock characters, usually a timid, reluctant yet very competent hero versus a bully type of adversary that believes violence is the best way to get results in business.
What these books may lack in terms of surprises are more than compensated by the obvious passion for the racing world, by the empathy displayed in character interaction, by the solid research done into each particular field of activity described in the book and by the engaging first person narrator.
What sets ‘Proof’ apart from its peers is the way several different plot lines are brought together, the higher percentage of actual action scenes, the friendship between Tony and Gerard [an older private investigator into white-collar industrial crime] that replaces the usual romantic sub-plot, the way the villain is revealed from his very first entry into the limelight, yet his identity remains a mystery. And something that can get overlooked in a Dick Francis novel, even as it always lurks in the subtext: his subtle sense of humour:
Be grateful for villany, I thought. The jobs of millions depended on it, Gerard’s included. Police, lawyers, tax inspectors, prison warders, court officials, security guards, locksmiths and people making burglar alarms ...
Where would they be the world over but for the multiple faces of Cain.
There’s a memorable scene involving a matron from a local bar that terrifies both her clients and her husband, but my favorite moments are the self-deprecating, stiff-upper lip quips between Tony and Gerard as they lie bleeding in a parking lot or as they try to minimize the hair rising terrors they have gone through.
I stopped his car beside mine. We both got out. We stood looking at each other, almost awkwardly. After such intensity there seemed to be no suitable farewell.
‘I’m in your debt,’ he said.
I shook my head. ‘Other way round.’
Dick Francis doesn’t normally lets character do sequels, but I wouldn’t mind meeting Tony Beach somewhere down the line. I might even buy a few good bottles of red based on his advice. -
Dick Francis novels are always enjoyable and this is one of his better ones. It is one of those stories where the protagonist is on the periphery of the horse racing world. The title of the book is a double entendre ... or triple. Tony Beach is a wine merchant who has a small shop. Up until six months ago he happily ran the shop with his wife when she died of an brain aneurysm while six months pregnant. Now he is just going through the motions. He opens the shop in the morning, smiles at the customers and says the right things, and at the end of the day returns to his empty house. His father and his grandfather were brave men. They showed their courage on the battlefield and on the horse racing track. Tony doubts his own courage. Proof in this story can be a reference to the alcohol content of the wines and spirits that Tony sells. It is also about courage.
The story opens with Tony catering a party thrown by a customer who is a horse trainer. There he is approached by the horse trainer's assistant with a problem. One of the owners of a horse with the trainer also owns a restaurant. The horse trainer, his wife, and the assistant recently had dinner at the restaurant. The assistant is concerned because he ordered an expensive Scotch and what he got wasn't the real deal. He would like Tony to check out the restaurant and see if they are selling bogus liquor. If so he can approach the owner and tell him he is being cheated. Tony listens but he is busy catering the party. Moments later a horse trailer rolls down a hill and crashes into the tent where the guests are gathered. There are multiple deaths and injuries. Among the dead is the restaurant owner. Among the injured is the horse trainer and his assistant. Tony tries his best to rescue those who are trapped and injured. He is assisted by another guest named Gerard McGregor.
Afterwards McGregor approaches Tony. It turns out that he is a private investigator whose client owns a trucking firm. It seems that several tanker trucks that had been transporting Scotch to a bottling plant had been hijacked. The horse trainer's wife had a lot of praise for Tony and McGregor would like his help. The police are also asking Tony for his help. There is, of course, a connection between the bogus liquor in the restaurant and the hijacked trucks. A lot of money is involved and Tony soon finds that assisting McGregor and the police puts him in danger. Including attempts on his life and a climatic scene that will provide the proof that Tony has the courage that he often questioned.
Tony Beach is a typical
Dick Francis protagonist. Very likable, quiet, intelligent. A good guy. The kind of guy you would like to know. Someone who is dependable and who can be counted on to do the right thing. And along the way he learns some things about himself. -
5 Love of Dick Francis Stars
* * * * * Spoiler Free
Years ago, I was a mystery thriller reader only. I also fell into showing horses...Long Story...Anyway, the draw of mysteries and horses brought me to Dick Francis, an amazing mystery writer who used the racing environment as a backdrop.
Now, this specific book doesn't have much of the horse racing part... but does have the Dick Francis talent throughout. I saw it was on sale, remembered how much I loved reading him and thought I would alert those who might be interested.
Enjoy
For more Reviews, Free E-books and Giveaways
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An enjoyable read but the ending was stretching the imagination. Tony Beach is a recent widower, wine merchant snd questions his courage in adversity. The start of the story is exciting with carnage in a marquee by a runaway horse box. The dangers of unsupervised children.
We then get a detailed explanation of wines and scotch. Someone is selling fake wine and scotch. The story revolves around the investigation and identifying the culprits doing it. There is a horrific murder and attempted murder of Tony and Gerald who hires Tony’s taste buds to identify the fake wine and scotch.
The ending for me was just to unlikely. They find the van used when someone tried to kill them. Yet they don’t call the police and continue to search the bottling plant. Why? Still another enjoyable read when their was life without mobile phones. -
As with many Francis books, the title of Proof has multiple meanings. "Proof" of guilt, "Proof" of alcohol content, "Proof" of courage, and even "Proof" that life can continue after loss. All four are explored in this volume. In Proof, Francis gives us a look at the wine and spirit industry from the viewpoint of a liquor merchant who has recently become a widower. At the beginning of the book the merchant is terribly depressed from the loss of his wife, and also weighed down by a conviction that he has failed his family because he has never been conspicuously brave or successful as his father and grandfather were before him. By the end of the book, as in many Francis novels, he has discovered his previously unappreciated inner strength and a will to re-enter the land of the living. As usual, I love the way Francis quietly but intensely describes the suffering of his characters, and that oh-so-British stiff upper lip that carries them through their troubles. Although the details of the liquor industry got a bit tedious for me once or twice, this is definitely another worthy entry in the Francis repertoire.
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Dick Frances has a unique way of creating protagonists. Instead of having one main character in a variety of settings, he has a variety of main characters in the horse care and racing setting. This gives the reader a true range of behaviors. Some of his characters are better persons than others, some are more fortunate, but all are realistic in the sense that they are good people who are competent and vulnerable.
In the case of Proof, Frances adds an additional element to his protagonist, Tony Beach. Although Beach lives in the world of horses and horse racing and is seen to be an expert in the field, his profession is as the owner of a liquor store and wine shop. He lives on the periphery of horses and in the world of liquor. Nevertheless he is the only man to crack the case of a scam featuring alcohol and he nearly gets himself killed on the way.
As with Frances' other amateur sleuths, Beach is logical and level-headed while chaos ensues around him. He is the calm in the eye of the storm and gives readers a feeling of being solid and grounded while they fear for the evil doers around him. -
I always enjoy reading a good Dick Francis novel. They are pretty clean, the language isn't too bad, and not a lot of sex.... Sometimes I even reread the books, because it's like being with a friend you haven't seen in several years. I really enjoy the characters he uses, and also enjoy the series he wrote about too. Tony Beach is a wine merchant with a small shop. He also provides the alcohol/drinks for parties. While at a party he did annually for a horse trainer, there is a horrible accident when a horse trailer careens down the hill from the car park and into the party tent. Over the next couple of weeks, Tony becomes involved in two investigations. There was the investigation of what happened at the party but there is a bigger investigation going on. Larry Trent, one of the attendees at the party (who is killed) had been blabbing about how he'd been at another party where the alcohol wasn't the quality is should be for the label. He'd been talking to Tony, which is how he got involved. The police looked to Tony as an expert to help locate the watered alcohol. What happens next is standard Dick Francis hold-on-for-the-ride stuff.
I really enjoyed this one. I'd been looking at Goodreads lists of Dick Francis books and this one was right at the top of the votes. I can understand why. The story pulls you in and introduces a number of characters and then the questions. The main character gets himself in and out of a scrape or two. About the time you're wondering how is this all going to come together, the pace picks up and the last hundred pages are a flying race to the finish. I was reading it on edge wondering what was going to happen and would he get out. I'd not read one yet where he didn't, but o my! Thriller to the end. Recommend -
A rattling good read--or listen, in my case. One of Francis' best, in my opinion. Instead of the previous inner philosophical debates on the nature of good and evil, here we have an investigation into the anatomy of courage. Oh, the bad guys are still thoroughly bad, but not unbalanced; just greedy and egoist (which is, of course, the essence of greed--it's all about me and sod you.)
Our Hero is of course the standard clean-cut moral Brit in an acceptable middle-class job, but this time he is definitely a square peg. All around him are directly involved in the world of horses, but he himself is a wine merchant. I find this a common element in so many novels and plays written for the upper middle class of the UK: pleasant young adult with no drive to do much of anything discovers a talent s/he didn't know s/he had that not only permits them to earn the daily crust, but spreads it thickly with butter and even the occasional dollop of jam. I wish I could discover a hidden talent, but then I'm not British, nor upper middle class. Shame about reality.
The story begins with a disaster, only to segue into a rather quiet little plot that has very little to do with that gripping setup. At first I thought the quiet part was rather predictable; it was, in some respects, but in other more vital respects the gentle development kept me wrong footed until the end. What an end! A great ride. Like a good wine, cool on the tongue, light on the palate, it cheers and satisfies.
I must have read this back when it first came out, but remembered nothing beyond a phrase here and there. Tony Britton's reading is superlative as always; he could read a 1976 Bronx telephone book, and I'd listen happily. I was startled to realise that the voice went with the name of the actor who played in "Father Dear Father" which mad me giggle my way through my teens. -
Lovely English and flowing narrative studded with words and particulars that have since "left the building" so to speak. Its tone, its interests of such deep knowledge and the details of production and distribution for the liquor and horsing worlds were both 5 star. The entire platform for the novel- its setting and characters- they are light years beyond what is current for this genre for information and for frame setting. That's the first lovely feature. The other best one is that the numerous characters become known, and seem quite real.
So why not at least a 4 star rating? It's a full 3.5 star but I just can't round it up because it "tells" too much. For instance, in the set of actions just before the full consequence completion for the baddies. It's a lengthy pursuit and hiding within a huge racing venue of immense and multi tiered stands and displaying levels. And I thought it became dubious and much more geared to a visual film or video format than to this page after page hide and seek. Actually the very first development of the book was also highly visual too. (A horse carrying wagon attachment running down a hill and causing a horrific crowd leveling and murderous accident.)
It's long (overlong for red herring characters especially) and yet also quite instructive. If you don't have exact concepts for differences between single and malt liquors or differing processes for wine and spirits productions- you will after reading this book. Highly, highly detailed and erudite explanations to everything all around. Even to the "taster" requirements and attributes.
It was wonderful to come back into this Dick Francis upper crust horsey world again after many years. I love how all of his relate to each other centered on that elite relationship of all these in the horse ownership, racing, hunting, jumping, contesting world.
Beach as the narrator and in his "work" and "grief" aspects was 4 star and better than other Francis protagonists that I've read. -
This was an excellent production by BBC Radio 4 with a full cast dramatization.
Wine merchant Tony Beech is catering an upmarket party when a runaway horse float crashes into the marquee killing several people.
At the same time he is inveigled into investigating a suspected fraud, where inferior product is being sold off as top of the line whisky, brandy and wine.
There is an intoxicating blend of deception, intrigue, and murder in this book. It would have rated a full star higher except that there was one loose end that was not tied up to my satisfaction - and it's still annoying me!
But that aside, it is still a good enjoyable example of Dick Francis' skills as a writer in the racing world. -
From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
Dick Francis's thriller dramatised in eight parts by Ernest Dudley.
Episode 1 of 8
The champagne is flowing at a party thrown by racehorse trainer Jack Haythorne, when tragedy strikes. But is it just an accident..?
Episode 2 of 8
In the tragedy's aftermath, Tony Beach goes wine and whisky tasting in the cause of criminal investigation.
Episode 3 of 8
The fraud plot thickens, as Tony Beach meets the boss of whisky hauliers Charter Carriers.
Episode 4 of 8
Dodgy drink, a missing racehorse and a body at a restaurant. Wine merchant Tony Beach is in the thick of it...
Episode 5 of 8
Mystery for Tony and Flora - is her son back from Australia? And can a diary unlock the mystery?
Episode 6 of 8
Wine merchant Tony Beach has to deal with some unwanted visitors to his store.
Episode 7 of 8
Kenneth Junior makes a request from hospital, and Tony learns more about the mysterious Paul Young.
Episode 8 of 8
Tony Beach and his detective chum Gerard MacGregor attempt to unearth the true identity of Paul Young.
Stars Nigel Havers as Tony Beach, George Parsons as Gerard, Jennifer Piercey as Flora, Tim Reynolds as Fulham, Pauline Letts as Mrs Fulham, Alan Dudley as Jack, Andrew Branch as Jimmy, Stephen Hattersley as Sgt. Ridger and Manning Wilson as Chief Sup. Wilson.
Director: Matthew Walters
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1987.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007m9f7 -
Wine merchant, Tony Beach, is delivering wine to a party of racing enthusiasts when a horse trailer breaks loose and kills several people in the party tent. The police question him about who he saw around the trailer and they are impressed with his ability to remember things. Eventually the police ask for his expert help in following up on complaints about false labeling on some of the Scotches and wines provided to local bars and restaurants. That then leads to him being asked to assist private detective Gerard McGregor in finding out who is responsible for a series of whiskey bottling trucks being hijacked.
I've never been much of a Dick Francis fan because I just don't have any interest in horses and that's normally what he writes about. I'm still nursing a grudge from a nasty horse I met about forty years ago. I do love wine and this book is filled with interesting tidbits about wine, as well as Scotch whiskey. I also loved the characters in this story. Tony Beach is a widower who is devastated by grief for his recently deceased wife. He's also the son of a military hero and knows he doesn't live up to the expectations his family had for him.
There were plenty of twists and turns and the ending was incredibly tense. It definitely wasn't predictable and even though the villain was already known to the reader, it was a very compelling novel. I really enjoyed this book, especially the character of Tony Beach and his slow realization of what sort of man he really is. I may have to reconsider Dick Francis books, even the ones that deal with horses. -
My edition of this book proudly proclaims,"The best of his bestsellers,it's a corker." It begins dramatically enough,after that it loses steam.Not bad,but in comparison with many of his other books,it doesn't stand out for me.
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I've read one or two of Dick Francis' books but this is, by far, the best one. Perhaps it's to do with the easily likeable protagonist, Tony Beach, an unassuming, intelligent, and kind man. He didn't think he's anything special but his ability to distinguish one brand of alcohol from another made him the perfect 'consultant' for this particular case of stolen alcohol. It's a very easy listening for me & my only complaint is that it sounds like it is a digitalised cassette tapes. The sound was soft and tinny.
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Dodgy wine, stolen whiskey, dead sheiks, expensive horses. Not really my bag, but Francis has constructed a neat little mystery here. Romped along nicely enough.
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Typical formulaic mystery. I wasn’t pulled in.
I wanted to give this author a try. So now I’ve read two of his books and I’m done. He’s just not for me. He writes straight mystery. I want more interesting characters, relationship development, and dialogue. There was potential for Tony and the private detective Gerard to be unusual or have an interesting relationship, but that wasn’t done.
This is a story about a good guy investigating, being in danger, eventually figuring out the mystery, and catching the bad guys. The liquor store owner Tony is asked to help the cops and a private detective Gerard by taste testing beverages to determine fakes. Yet Tony is the one who figures things out and catches the bad guys using his brain with some bravery. Tony is smarter-and-better-at-detecting than the detectives. Ok I should accept that. This is the hero. But for some reason I wasn’t intrigued. A couple of times I was annoyed with good guys doing something stupid which put them in danger. A couple of times Tony discovered something and tried to call the cops or Gerard, but they weren’t there, so he had to wait before he could pass on information - hmmm more suspense. This just didn’t do it for me. It was written nearly thirty years ago. I believe Francis is/was a popular author. I wonder if it was because there weren’t as many authors back then doing what’s being done today. I’ve been spoiled by current mystery suspense authors such as Michael Connelly, John Grisham, Stieg Larsson, and others. With this author I feel like I’m doing a jigsaw puzzle - find the pieces, put them together, after a few hours you are done - something to do when there’s nothing else to do.
NARRATOR:
The narrator Simon Prebble has a British accent. He was ok but not great. As far as British accented narrators go, I prefer Eve Matheson.
DATA:
Unabridged audiobook reading time: 9 hrs and 43 mins. Swearing language: strong, but rarely used. Sexual content: none other than one scene where Tony recalls the joy of having sex with his wife. Setting: around 1985 England. Copyright: 1985. Genre: mystery suspense. -
Book Description
Young wine merchant Tony Beach's exposure of a liquor scam sparks a brutal murder and forces the corruption in the liquor industry to spread into the realm of thoroughbred horse racing.
My Review:
This was my first Dick Francis book. I enjoyed learning about the different methods of making scotch. His characters were very interesting. I liked Tony and Gerard with their investigative skills and the crazy lady who shot her rifle up the chimney in order to clear the bird's nest was very humorous. I thought Francis' writing style was easy to read. My only complaint is that Dick Francis left a few things hanging in regards to the incident in the beginning of the book. Who really let the horse trailer go into the tent and why? I look forward to reading another of his books and I would recommend this book to those who love cozy mysteries about horse racing and making and distributing alcohol.
3.5 stars -
Read by Nigel Havers. The Sheikh was rattled then rolled - I know, I have a terrible sense of humour. Classic Francis, which is always acceptable.
At the annual party celebrating the success of the racing season, everything is running well to form until a runaway horsebox ploughs into the marquee, causing terrible death and destruction. A witness to the tragedy, wine merchant Tony Beach presumes it is just one of those awful accidents.
But as he gets involved in the investigation and begins to make connections, events take a more sinister turn...
First broadcast on BBC Radio 7 in 2004.
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I can't say anything bad about this book. It had all the qualities for a good mystery... deception, intrigue, and murder. I guess the thing I had the most problem with was the combination of the liquor, horse racing, and the murder at the beginning of the book. When you go back and take it all in I have to admit that it was a very complex plot. The author did a commendable job of almost tying all the loose ends up and offering some excitement at the end that the book had mostly lacked throughout. If you like mysteries a little on the cozy side...you should really like this book.
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Next to Break In, this may be my favorite Dick Francis story. The storyline is intriguing, enthralling and heartbreaking. Anything I know about scotch, I learned from Dick Francis. Twenty years after reading Proof, I bought a bottle of Laphroaig for my boss based simply on this book. A definite winner!
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Tony Beach is a 32-uear-old widower who is a wine merchant with an in with the horsey crowd because his father was a famous amateur jockey and his mother rides in the local hunt. Because of his connections, he's hired to supply the liquor for a party hosted by one of the local trainers. He sees a horrible accident when a loaded horse trailer rumbles down a hill and crashes into the outdoor tent where the party is being held. He and some of the other guests do their best to rescue many trapped in the collapsed tent. Even so, the guest of honor, a sheik, some of his entourage, one of the trainer's best customers Larry Trent, and a few other people die in the accident.
The trainer breaks a leg, and his secretary is also severely injured, but not before he has a conversation with Tony about some whiskey he had at the Trent's supper club. He is convinced that the whiskey wasn't what the bottle's label says it was. This conversation makes its way through the trainer's wife to Gerrard McGregor who helped Tony free people during the accident and who works for an investigative agency.
Gerrard recruits Tony to be his expert for his current case which concerns the theft of trucks filled with whiskey, Gerrard's company has been hired to find out how the thefts are happening because the company won't be able to stay in business if the thefts continue.
Meanwhile, the local police also need Tony's expertise because they have numerous complaints about alcohol being sold in local pubs that isn't what it is supposed to be. Trent's supper club is on the list and Tony quickly identifies that the whiskey and some of the wines are being misrepresented. While they are there, a man from the home office appears and seems surprised about the liquor. Shortly thereafter the wine manager at Trent's is found murdered by having his head wrapped in plaster of Paris.
As Tony and Gerrard investigate, they begin to find connections between the two investigations and the tension mounts as they get closer to a solution and also closer to a killer.
This is one of my favorite stories by Dick Francis. I really enjoy that the hero has self-doubts about his courage and fear that he won't be able to live up to the heroics of his father and grandfather. I also like that he isn't afraid to be grieving for the death of his young wife. I also like that he is happy in his career.
The narration was expertly done by Simon Prebble who managed a variety of accents to distinguish the various characters without making the accents incomprehensible to my American ears. He also did a great job conveying the various emotions of the characters and the rising tensions in the story. -
As always, Dick Francis, gives us a protagonist, who is stable, calm, a no nonsense fatalist who takes what life gives him, no questions asked. He has the prerequisite angsty relationship with his family, both living and dead.
Tony Beach is the owner of a small liquor store in a small village. Due to his expertise with both wine and whiskey, he is called upon by both the local police and a private detective agency to uncover a mystery involving both whiskey and wine. Beach, of course, approaches his new role in stride. He has a clever mind, asks questions no one else considered, noticed details others miss.
There is also as usual, a suitably evil antagonist. He murders with delight. I’ll skip the gruesome details.
Francis, also as usual does his research. Here we learn lots about whiskey and wine. For instance, many centuries ago, alcohol was mixed with gun powder and ignited. If it burned with a strong blue flame, you had proof that the liquid was in fact at least 50% alcohol. So 50% alcohol, 100% proof. Pretty cool fact.
Finally, Beach is able to come to terms with his family, while solving the mystery. Classic Dick Francis. -
I embarked on my Dick Francis reading guided by my friend Rohan’s Top Ten list, and so far she has not steered me wrong:
https://rohanmaitzen.com/2013/06/18/r...
I think what I like most about Francis is that his male characters are heroic, but they challenge the typical thriller-hero model of masculinity in some way. Above all, they are decent. Tony Beach is especially interesting. He is a wine merchant who feels he can’t live up to his father, a steeple-chasing colonel who was killed in a racing accident, and who is for Tony a model of physical courage. In the opening scene, when Tony works to rescue people at the scene of a horrible accident, the reader starts to see that his self-assessment as a coward isn’t really accurate, but it takes Tony much longer to recognize this.
The accident draws Tony into a mystery surrounding stolen tankers of booze, and as often in Francis there is lots of great background stuff on this (I finally know what “malt” is in malt whiskey). Both Tony and Gerard McGregor, the private investigator he works with, are interesting characters, and the mystery is a good one. There are some strong minor female characters too. -
I struggled a bit with this book, but I don’t blame the book entirely. I was reading it during a very busy time of the semester when I had to put it down in favor of required material. Still, I tried to read as much as possible and got into the story enough to continue.
This is the first novel I’ve read by this author, though he has published many, and is/was evidently a serious fan of horse racing and wine, and he displays his intimate knowledge of both here as they form the basis of much of the location and plot points. The protagonist is a respected wine merchant who has lost his wife to childbirth, and he reminisces often about his marriage and how much he misses her, though really, that plays no role in the story. The crisis begins at a charity event held by one of his customers at his huge horse stable home and estate. A major Arabic horse enthusiast is in attendance, along with some important local businessmen. All of a sudden, while our protagonist is at his van, a huge horse trailer somehow gets loose, tramples down the hill and into the tent, killing many of its inhabitants, including this very wealthy sheik. Of course, the sheik is a red herring and plays absolutely NO role in this story, which I found shameful as so much of the protagonist’s time, not to mention the police, is wrapped up into figuring out who would want to murder this guy.
The story then gets a little confusing, but ultimately it centers around stolen wine, stolen tankers, and cheap booze being sold for profit at various bars in the area.
My problem with this “detective” story is that the hero of the story isn’t a detective. He isn’t a former policeman. He isn’t involved in any way, in law enforcement. He isn’t a private detective. He’s just an average guy who sells wine, how and why he becomes so important to the police and others, and even a victim of crime himself, is a mystery to me. Perhaps he just knows too much about wine? For half of the novel I kept waiting for the initial crime to be solved...who released the horse trailer and killed all the people in the tent? Well, don’t hold your breath, because we never find out!! I don’t know if the author just forgot his initial crime?...I cannot imagine why he would never get around to completely explaining what happened. I mean...we know what he bad guys are at the end, but what they did at that event, and how they did it, continues a mystery to me, and that disappoints me.
The protagonist is intelligent, but he doesn’t possess any special skills that would cause him to solve the mystery, aside from his knowledge of wine and the wine industry. In this way, he’s just not a terribly interesting character. The story was well written, and sucked me in enough to where I wanted to know what happened, but since I started reading this I purchased two other novels from the author (as I was intrigued at first), and to be fair, I’m going to give this guy another chance. It’s possible the length of time in between my readings affected my view of this novel (thus proving Poe’s theory correct, that a good story should be read if not in one sitting, then at least the least amount of time possible). I’ll give this three stars...nothing more, nothing less.
