Odds Against (Sid Halley #1) Paperback | Pages: 288 pages

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Original Title:	Odds Against
ISBN:	0425198006 (ISBN13: 9780425198001)
Edition Language:	English
Series:	Sid Halley #1
Characters:	Sid Halley
Literary Awards:	Edgar Award Nominee for Best Novel (1967)

Narrative Toward Books Odds Against (Sid Halley #1)

This book introduces Sid Halley who, if memory serves, is the only protagonist that Dick Francis ever used more than once. Halley was a very successful jockey until he fell from a horse which trampled his left hand, abruptly ending his career. He accepts a job with a detective agency that has a racing division, but he spends a couple of years simply hanging around the office without being given any meaningful assignments. But he's willing to go with the flow, or the not-flow, as the case may be, because he's still trying to figure out what his future is going to be now that the one thing he really loved has been taken from him.

Things take a turn for the worse when one of the detectives in the office asks Halley to assist him in a minor sting and Halley winds up being shot. Now he has a crippled hand and a ventilated stomach, which will take some time to heal. His wealthy father-in-law asks Sid to visit over a weekend and Halley agrees to do so. (Sid's wife has left him, which is not at all uncommon for a protagonist in a Dick Francis novel, but he's still on good terms with her father.)

The father-in-law has an ulterior motive, which Halley soon discovers. The other weekend guests are a particularly obnoxious man and his equally disagreeable wife who enjoys being knocked about while having sex. Without telling Halley what he's up to, the father-in-law cleverly manipulates things so that Halley will wind up investigating the disagreeable guest.

The bad guy is apparently involved in a nasty scheme to sabotage a race course so that he can gain a controlling interest and turn the place into a housing development. Well, of course, we can't allow something that horrifying to happen, but once Halley is on the job, a lot of other very horrifying things will happen--most all of them to him.

Dick Francis is a very dependable author who almost always tells an interesting tale that moves swiftly along, and this book is certainly no exception. Although the protagonists do vary in nearly every book, there is a certain formula at work in these novels, and the principal characters are almost always of a type. That's certainly not a problem, and any fan of the series will want to look for this entry.

Identify Containing Books Odds Against (Sid Halley #1)

Title	:	Odds Against (Sid Halley #1)
Author	:	Dick Francis
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 288 pages
Published	:	February 1st 2005 by G.P. Putnam's Sons (first published 1965)
Categories	:	Mystery. Fiction. Crime. Thriller

Rating Containing Books Odds Against (Sid Halley #1)

Ratings: 4.07 From 4528 Users | 175 Reviews

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I've reread this one countless times. And I never tire of it. The characters and plotting completely satisfy every time.

As always, Francis comes up with a winning combination of mystery, intelligence, horse-racing, and clever detective work. I like all of the heroes that Francis creates, but Sid Halley is one of my favorites. He is an ex-jockey who seriously injured his hand in a race and had to retire at the top of his game. He has drifted since then, showing up at the office of a detective agency but not ever doing anything. His father-in-law (soon to be ex, father to his soon-to-be-ex-wife Jenny) was a naval

Sid Halley used to be a jockey, one of the greats. He used to be alive.Now he merely drifts in a job at that he thinks was given to him out of pity; pity for a cripple with a deformed and useless hand. Then a two-bit crook takes a pot shot at Halley who winds up, once again, in a hospital. On leave, visiting with the father of his ex-wife, Halley is drawn into a complex investigation of financial fraud, crooked real estate deals and race track politics. Along the way he will learn to confront

It came, the blinding flash in the eyes, as we soared into the air. White, dazzling, brain shattering light, splintering the day into a million fragments and blotting out the world in a blaze as searing as the sun. I felt Revelation falling beneath me and rolled instinctively, my eyes open and quite unable to see. There there was the rough crash on the turf and the return of vision from light to blackness and up through grey to normal light. Two years ago Sid Halley crashed during a horse race

Dick Francis is a delight. The man can spin a mystery/thriller like no other, and featuring horses to boot. Great characters, hijinks, and suspense. If you are a fan of Sherlock Holmes and also like or do not mind stories about horse racing, you won't be disappointed. Barring some minor 1960s-appropriate sexism (although it's a lot better than most books of that time that I've read), it really holds up even 50+ years later.

This was my first Dick Francis book. I have been avoiding them for a long time - even though my mother was a keen advocate. In browsing the shelves of Foul Play last winter, my favorite mystery bookshop in Columbus, Ohio, I found Odds Against. Since it is the first in the Sid Halley series, I decided to get my feet wet. I am glad I did.My long avoidance of Dick Francis was my belief that the backdrop of horse racing would be a detractor for me, even though I was born in blue grass country. There

Mix equal parts of Agatha Christie, Eric Ambler, Graham Greene and Leslie Charteris. Shake well. And garnish with a dash of Grey and L'Amour.Dick Francis is the perfect author for an enjoyable reading experience. His characters remind me of watching the old Roger Moore Saint TV show or the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple movies... just good clean fun.