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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 11, No. 7 |
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ANOTHER MASTER of MYSTERY FALLS: DICK FRANCIS  DICK FRANCIS ...dead at 89 |
Equine Mystery King dies,
ending a grand career
of TheColumnists.com
No mystery writer of the past quarter century has given me more sustained reading pleasure than the great Dick Francis, who died Sunday, Feb. 14, of natural causes at his home in the Cayman Islands. He was 89.
Coming less than a month after the death of Robert B. Parker, creator of "Spenser" and the "Jesse Stone" novels, Francis' death is the second major blow to the mystery world. Both were ranked as true masters of the genre.
Francis came to the mystery writing game as a second career after injuries finally forced him from the career that first brought him fame: Horse racing. He was one of England's all-time great steeplechase jockeys, riding with the colors of the Queen Mother. As a writer he also reached the heights, winning all the highest honors of the mystery world, including the status of Grand Master, a Diamond Dagger award and three Edgar Allen Poe awards. He also was made a Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth.
Francis' 42 novels--almost all of them set in the world of horses--were deftly-written, action-packed and loaded with his first-hand knowledge of horses, horsemanship and the various forms of racing involving horses. A reader never had to be a "horse junkie" to enjoy his books, which were cleverly plotted and had almost cinematic dialogue for the characters.
Many believed that Francis was aided considerably in the writing of his novels by his late wife, Mary, who died in 2000 at age 76. He stopped publishing for awhile after her death, but later resumed his novels, now co-authored by his son Felix. Francis and his son have one final novel scheduled to be published later this year.
In the writing of my companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" television series--"Mystery! A Celebration" (1996)--I interviewed Francis, who had taken up permanent residence in the Caymans. We chatted on the phone and I found him to be a delightful man. He readily credited wife Mary with being his full-time live-in editor and helpmate. He told me she provided special insight when he was writing the novels involving former jockey Sid Halley, who had been disabled in a steeplechase fall, had to be fitted with an artificial hand and began a new career as a detective.
"She had polio in 1950 when our first son was on the way," Francis told me. "She was in an iron lung for five to sis weeks. Like Sid Halley, she had to readjust her way of life when she came out."
The notion that Francis simply provided his knowledge of horses while his wife did all the writing seems unlikely to be true. Before he turned to mystery writing, Francis was a sports columnist for The Sunday Express and first wrote his best-selling autobiography "The Sport of Queens," then began to write novels, starting with "Dead Cert" (1962), which was filmed in 1974 by Tony Richardson, starring a young Judi Dench. Francis also developed the storyline for "The Racing Game," the TV series shown on "Mystery!" It was based in part on his first novel featuring Sid Halley--"Odds Against," which was published in 1965. Two more novels featured Sid Halley, but most of Francis' mysteries were "stand alones" and had no recurring characters.
The Welsh-born Francis clearly was one of the great steeplechase jockeys. By the time his racing career ended in 1957, he had won 345 races, finished second 285 times and third 240 times. He was the National Hunt Champion in 1953 and 1954, riding Devin Loch, the most celebrated horse in the Queen Mother's stable.
When I asked Francis how he thought he'd be remembered, he chuckled and said he'd probably always be known as, "The man who didn't win the National/" He was referring to his performance in the 1956 Grand National when Devon Loch did a belly flop 10 strides from the finish line after extending a commanding lead over the field. He always claimed the horse had been spooked by the huge roars from the crowd.
Perhaps that's the way hard core racing fans in England will remember him, but mystery fans around the world certainly won't see it that way. Speaking as one who has eagerly devoured all of Francis' novels, I happily predict he'll be remembered as one of the greatest mystery writers in the history of the genre--a good and decent man who brought reading pleasure to millions and created a sub-genre, the equine mystery, that continues to flourish today.
©2010 by Ron Miller.
This column first posted Feb. 15, 2010.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series.
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