I was on Tenderhooks

I believe this is Felix Francis’s first book of a series about Jefferson Roosevelt Hinkley. Hinkley is an investigator for the British Horse Racing Authority. He is investigating a banned horse trainer, Mathew Unwin.

The book is well written. The plot twists and turns. The characters are interesting. The book was hard to put down. The suspense kept me reading even when I should have gone to bed. I was a big fan of Dick Francis and enjoyed Felix’s return to the horse racing story line. I shall be looking for more Felix Francis books to read.

The book is almost ten and a half hours. Michael Neilson does a good job narrating the book. Neilson is an actor, singer, voice-over artist and audiobook narrator.

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7 people found this helpful

Predictable

This has to be one of the first Dick Francis books I have not really enjoyed. The story grabbed you in parts but seems jumpy and disjointed. I also found the narrator a bit dreary making it hard to stay focused. I expected more.

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6 people found this helpful

Great, but lacking pace, intensity and suspense

For me Dick Francis' signature has always been the relentless pace of the main plot, intensity and suspense, which are all sorely lacking in Damage. Lackluster (tired) narration does not help either.

There are too many distractions (subplots that don't supplement the main plot) to the main plot. At times it appears the story is rushed... hence not well rounded and polished.

I'm a Dick / Felix Francis fan, so I'm hopeful of better work in the future. I'll be back for more.

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6 people found this helpful

Not bad

Overall, this was not bad. The story was interesting, but not compelling. The characters were interesting and believable, but remained distant characters, rather than real people. The narrator was intelligible, but the character voices were occasionally a bit odd. So - overall it was good, glad I read it, but not something I couldn't put down.

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4 people found this helpful

He isn't his dad

I struggled to finish this one perhaps a different narrator but still just not as good as his dad

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2 people found this helpful

Son Felix Francis does well.

Felix Francis did a good job writing his father's story. the performer was different than what we are used to but it was still pretty good. However little too dramatic.

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2 people found this helpful

Not as good as his dad

It has all of the classic Dick Francis elements, but something is missing. There is a lack of depth in the development of the bad guy...I hardly knew him. The main character doesn't have the opportunity to go deeper into himself as in Francis' other protagonists. The ending was really not well written in my opinion. I realize the senior has passed but I was hoping that the junior had been trained to go above and beyond. I will keep reading his books hoping for that. Secondly I personally didn't care for Mr. Nielson's performance. He did very well with secondary voice characterizations, but his protagonist didn't have the Simon Pebble or Tony Blair quality that makes these books so enjoyable.

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2 people found this helpful

good entertainment

good story, well read with
dinguished voices. excellent homage to his father's legacy.
clever main character.

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1 person found this helpful

Getting better

Felix Francis's writing has improved to the point where his books probably deserve better narration. He is never going to compare to his father, I'm afraid, but you can see the changes in both characterization and style. His male characters are no longer whiny, self-doubters whose inability to do anything without constant self-examination was beginning to be really irritating. His descriptions of people and their motives still lack the perceptions of Francis Senior. But it is improving, and I'm glad he is no longer saddled with Martin Jarvis, whose overblown, nearly sarcastic, rendition brought out all the worst points of the early books. It's a bit ironic to see Francis' 'kinder, gentler' man still refer to adult women as 'girls.' But he is at least moving in the right direct. He will probably never attract the likes of Tony Britton and Simon Prebble. But the good progress he has made is disguised by the mediocre narration of Michael Nielson. Overall, worth buying only for the continuation of the racing universe so vividly depicted by Dick Francis.

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1 person found this helpful

Excellent for listening —driving/bedtime

Absolutely wonderful to listen to when driving, resting or just “winding f do own” to go to sleep.
Very enjoyable.

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