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Refusal (Felix Francis)
I've generally heard that the Felix Francis continuations of Dick Francis's franchise aren't worth reading, but I saw one of these in the used bookstore - it's Sid Halley #5, Refusal - and decided that since it was that specific one and I'd just been reading the earlier Halley books, I'd go ahead and give it a try.
And honestly - I liked it. I don't think it was equal to Francis at his best by any means, but it was an entertaining thriller and held my interest. I think I was more forgiving of the occasional Too Stupid To Live moments (of which there were definitely a few) because of having just recently read Twice Shy, complained about earlier, which also had that problem but even worse, and that one was legit by the original Francis. But on the whole, I enjoyed this, and I liked the character stuff a lot; in particular he did one thing I'd been wanting Dick Francis to do for the entire series, but he never obliged me ...
... we got Charles Roland h/c in this one! And Charles being a stone cold badass! Legitimately, I thought Charles might actually die in this book - there's some foreshadowing that seems to hint at it - so that was honestly incredibly tense, Charles didn't exactly kick ass but he did get to be absolutely brave and stoic as hell (he takes a beating that puts him in a coma to avoid revealing the location of Sid's wife and daughter), and there was also quite a good callback to the earlier scenes with Sid's daughter's favorite game being "sardines" so she knows exactly where to hide in Aynsford to avoid being found by even the most determined goon.
To be fair, this was 100% Sid's fault, in one of those previously mentioned Too Stupid To Live moments. Yeah, Sid, I WONDER why ANYONE would think of Aynsford in connection with you, it's a total mystery, definitely there's no reason to assume that someone looking for people you care about would EVER go there, I can't even imagine why anyone would think of that...
Honestly, I enjoyed Sid's daughter Saskia very much. She is spectacularly stubborn, resourceful, and essentially a six-year-old Sid. Marina (Sid's wife from the previous book) doesn't come off so well in this one, though she rallies a bit toward the end, and honestly, she's mostly *right* about Sid putting them all in danger and frankly should have been more determined about taking their daughter somewhere a bit more defensible and secret than Aynsford. I also really enjoyed seeing Chico again, and he was pretty great in this. Basically it was a bit sequel-y and formulaic, but I had fun, the character dynamics are enjoyable and the bad guy is legitimately scary, and what ultimately happens to him (setting himself on fire by accident while trying to kill Sid) is a very Dick Francis sort of karmic payback.
And honestly - I liked it. I don't think it was equal to Francis at his best by any means, but it was an entertaining thriller and held my interest. I think I was more forgiving of the occasional Too Stupid To Live moments (of which there were definitely a few) because of having just recently read Twice Shy, complained about earlier, which also had that problem but even worse, and that one was legit by the original Francis. But on the whole, I enjoyed this, and I liked the character stuff a lot; in particular he did one thing I'd been wanting Dick Francis to do for the entire series, but he never obliged me ...
... we got Charles Roland h/c in this one! And Charles being a stone cold badass! Legitimately, I thought Charles might actually die in this book - there's some foreshadowing that seems to hint at it - so that was honestly incredibly tense, Charles didn't exactly kick ass but he did get to be absolutely brave and stoic as hell (he takes a beating that puts him in a coma to avoid revealing the location of Sid's wife and daughter), and there was also quite a good callback to the earlier scenes with Sid's daughter's favorite game being "sardines" so she knows exactly where to hide in Aynsford to avoid being found by even the most determined goon.
To be fair, this was 100% Sid's fault, in one of those previously mentioned Too Stupid To Live moments. Yeah, Sid, I WONDER why ANYONE would think of Aynsford in connection with you, it's a total mystery, definitely there's no reason to assume that someone looking for people you care about would EVER go there, I can't even imagine why anyone would think of that...
Honestly, I enjoyed Sid's daughter Saskia very much. She is spectacularly stubborn, resourceful, and essentially a six-year-old Sid. Marina (Sid's wife from the previous book) doesn't come off so well in this one, though she rallies a bit toward the end, and honestly, she's mostly *right* about Sid putting them all in danger and frankly should have been more determined about taking their daughter somewhere a bit more defensible and secret than Aynsford. I also really enjoyed seeing Chico again, and he was pretty great in this. Basically it was a bit sequel-y and formulaic, but I had fun, the character dynamics are enjoyable and the bad guy is legitimately scary, and what ultimately happens to him (setting himself on fire by accident while trying to kill Sid) is a very Dick Francis sort of karmic payback.
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By the way, my praise does NOT apply to the book Pulse, with Dr. Chris Reynolds, who we discover several pages in is female. He totally blew it with this one with a female character who was shrill, crazy, depressed, and obsessed with childbearing. I quit soon on and didn't even bother trying to see how it ended, I was that angry with the author. It was like no other Dick or Felix Francis I'd ever read.
I didn't read another Francis book until the latest Sid Halley (#6), Hands Down. It started pretty slowly, with a very whiny Sid, but when the action finally got rolling it was very good. I will probably go back and read all the ones I skipped after Pulse, but I don't purchase them anymore, I just use the library. With fingers crossed.
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The "shrill, whiny female character" issue was also a problem I had with Refusal and, so far, with Hands Down - very minor in both cases, not enough to make me stop reading, but it does seem like Felix's female characters shout and shriek a lot, and are prone to making aggressively emotional decisions at the drop of a hat. That's unfortunate about Pulse, though - I'll have to give that one a miss.
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