Odds Against by Dick Francis (NY: Fawcett Crest, 1965).

Reviewed by Gretchen Passantino (© Copyright 2006 by Gretchen Passantino).

The first in four stories by premier mystery writer Dick Francis to feature ex-jockey turned private investigator Sid Halley, Odds Against is a masterful blend of exciting mystery, the fascinating world of British horse racing, & personal destruction & renewal for which Francis is famous. One of the reasons Dick Francis is my favorite all-time mystery writer is that his main characters are a lot like the quintessential biblical heroes. No, not like Charlton Heston parting the Red Sea, but more like David stumbling through adultery, pleading with God for forgiveness, & then humbly carrying on. Or like Peter bragging of his loyalty to Christ, becoming horrified at his own betrayal, & then gratefully yielding to the renewal of the Spirit, not realizing that his surrender paradoxically makes him a victor. In many ways, a Dick Francis main character is like Frodo or Sam, hobbits who are the last to think themselves fearless heroes, but who humbly keep moving forward, depending not on their own strength, but something Beyond them that is both Good & Invincible. Sid Halley, in Odds Against, is like this.

The story is certainly not told from a Christian point of view. I have no information that Francis is at all religious, & religion rarely plays any obvious part in his stories. Nevertheless, the eternal Story (fall, loss, sacrifice, & redemption) is the core of every Francis story. Each story also includes a theme tangential to that core. In this book, the theme is that clinging to the past in the midst of the reality of the present is an insidious form of idolatry that, in the end, forever ruins the past & destroys the future.

Halley is a champion steeple chase jockey whose brilliant career is abruptly ended when a fall during a race results in the complete mutilation of his left hand. The story opens 3 years after the accident, as Halley recuperates from a gunshot wound suffered during a stakeout at his employer's security agency. Halley is convinced that his useful life is over. He can no longer participate in the only life he has ever loved, & he is a no-good cripple being tolerated by his employer only as a favor to an old friend, who is Halley's soon-to-be-ex-father-in-law & last true friend. Failure at racing, failure at marriage, failure at detecting, & failure at life has left Halley not really caring whether he recovers or not. When his father-in-law invites him for a weekend of company in the country, he is further humiliated by his father-in-law's deliberately cruel actions throughout the weekend in front of his wealthy, sophisticated, successful, & thoroughly despicable houseguests. Once the houseguests leave, Halley finds out that his father-in-law has not turned on him but instead expects him to determine how one of the houseguests is sabotaging a local race course so that he can succeed at a hostile takeover bid & sell the land for development at a huge profit. The father-in-law figures Halley will slip under the bad guy's radar if he's only perceived as a loser.

The intricate & thoroughly believable plot centers around the who, why, & how, but I was captivated by the equally fascinating story of Halley's spiritual death & rebirth as he struggles at least as much with internal fears & dangers as he does the external ones of fists, threats, & explosions. He finally realizes the gospel paradox of he who loses all gains all, observing to himself, "A fortnight ago I couldn't let go of the past. I was clinging to too many ruins, the ruins of my marriage and my racing career and my useless hand. They were gone for good now, all of them. There was nothing left to cling to. And every tangible memory of my life had blown away with a plastic bomb. I was rootless and homeless: and liberated" (275).

Odds Against was written more than 40 years ago, but its story remains credible & compelling. Francis recently released his 4th Sid Halley story, Under Orders & a reading (or, in may case, yet another re-reading) of the previous stories in order provides a complete feast of good story & good moral. Following Odds Against came Whip Hand (1979) & Come to Grief (1995). As do many series characters, Francis' Halley transitions seamlessly from Beatles' era 60s through transistorized 70s, media-dominated 90s, & micro-electronic 21st century while only aging a few years.