Book Review
DEAD CERT

by Dick Francis

Yes, folks, I have deviated from my Kerouac fanaticism for a second to bring you something completely different, a "horse of a different color". I feel this book is notable, and deserves to be reviewed.

It is notable in the respect that it is a Dick Francis book I actually read and enjoyed, first time I can say that. I have acquired several Dick Francis books over the years, mostly from my mother. I can't really say this is her fault, because I never mentioned that I disliked them. I suppose she thought that I would like them because his books all have horses in them.

I was going to mention that perhaps she thought I would like his books because I was addicted to Walter Farley books when I was I was an adolescent, which are primarily about horseracing. Then I thought about it and realized most of the books I chose to read as a child were about horses (elementary school I was all about the Billy and Blaze series and Marguerite Henry), and in fact the reason I was an early and avid reader was because my motivation to learn to read is so that I could read this book we had called All About Horses.

However, those stories are all different than the kind of books Francis writes. His books are primarily "whodunnit" mysteries that have horse racing as a backdrop. Originally I thought I didn't like them because of that fact, because I would say I really didn't like mysteries. Then I started thinking about if that was really true, because for one I have been reading a lot of mysteries in the past couple years and also, in a way, every book is a mystery. If you didn't have the desire to find out what happens next, whether it is who the main character is going to get out of the mess, if the star-crossed lovers will ever be able to work it out, or what becomes of a family or character in the book, then you aren't really interested in continuing to read it. The reason a person finishes reading a book is to know how the story ends, and in a way that is solving a mystery.

Every book may be a mystery, but not every book is about sleuth, about a character using deduction and logic to solve a crime. That was the primary action of the main character in this book, Alan York. Alan York is a steeplechase jockey who sees his good friend, who is racing in front of him, take a nasty fall on his horse and die as a result. York is convinced this was no accident, and for the remainder of the book, he is trying to solve the mystery of "whodunnit" and why.

The reason I think this book is superior to the other Francis books I have tried to read has something to do with this character, York. You just can't help but like him. He is a determined, intelligent fellow who will stop at nothing to find the truth, even if it costs him the thing he wants most at this point (the love of a woman). He has a code of ethics he follows even when it would behoove him not to, showing him to be honorable and a man of integrity.

An example of what I mean by this is that when he was visiting the grand home of his love for the weekend and meeting her upper-class relatives, who looked down at him in disdain because of his profession, he did not come out and admit to them that he was an amateur jockey and that he was a man of wealth and means who actually had a more professional job as a trader of securities. He could have pulled his family's card out of his hat at that moment and admitted that his father was the head of the wealthiest trading company in England, and had bought him a fancy car and three horses so that he could dabble in his little hobby on the side, and this would have won his love's family over. However, he doesn't tell them this because he wants to keep the playing field level between him and his fellow jockey friend who is also competing for the heart of the same girl and not take an unfair advantage. It was a sense of loyalty to his friend that prevents him.

This same sense of justice and loyalty to his friends is what compels him to seek the people responsible for the death of his friend Major Davidson, even though he is wounded several times in the attempt. The horses do not play a large role in the book, except as a backdrop, but my favorite part of the book did involve an amazing getaway ride from the racetrack to the countryside, with York riding Davidson's horse Admiral, reputed to be the best racer in the country, over rough obstacles to outwit the bad guys.

The book is an action packed read that never keeps you waiting. Every incident is crucial to the entire story, with not a wasted word in there. It read, in fact, like a steeplechase race in some respects, galloping along and up and over obstacles. Even on York's breaks from racing, he is pursuing justice and stumbling over clues that get him closer to the finish.
The book was written in 1962 and was the first book Francis ever published. After this one, he cranked out one book a year until his wife's death in 2000 slowed him down. It takes place in England, and I don't know if it is the time or the place, or if is the fact that it is the steeplechasing arena the book takes place in, but the horse talk is a little different. York refers to the racehorses as "hunter 'chasers", which is a term I have never heard. Around this part of the world, we call similar types of horses "hunter/jumpers". Steeplechase is a horse sport that is much bigger "over the pond" than in America, and maybe I haven't heard the term because it is particular to this sport. Francis shows his familiarity with the world of racing by vivid descriptions of setting, taking the reader into the jockey's changing areas and letting them in on the locker room talk, and introducing jockey slang.

Among the words he introduces is the phrase "dead cert", which is simply shorthand for "dead certain." It is a phrase the jockeys and bookies used to describe a horse-rider team that was certain to win a race. The problem with being a "dead cert" is that people know you will be out in the lead, first one over a fence, first one into danger. Major Davidson was the first "dead cert" introduced in the book. Will Alan York succumb to the same fate, or will justice be the next "dead cert"?

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Sherlock Holmes style smarts combined with a little horseplay. Read it, I'm dead certain you'll like it.