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Book Review By Amanda Campbell
Whip Hand by Dick Francis

Private Investigator Sid Halley is back in the sequel to Odds Against. After losing his bad left hand to the Howard Craye the villain in Odds Against, Sid has been fitted with a new mechanical hand. A few years have passed since the last book, old man Radnor (Sid's old boss) has died and Sid and his fellow PI Chico have gone freelance. However, it is hard to make ends meet on your own. Chico is teaching judo part-time and Sid is dealing in commodities and doing cases mostly pro-bono.

At the beginning of the book Sid is at home and is visited by Rosemary Caspar in disguise. Rosemary is the wife of a high profile Thoroughbred trainer George Casper; she suspects someone is sabotaging her husband's best horses, but no one believes her. Sid agrees to help her and finds out there is a lot more to the scandal then meets the eye and that the perpetrator is right under their noses. When Sid gets too close for comfort he is threatened by a sketchy character called Trevor Deansgate, who offers to take his good right hand from him if he does not make himself scarce.

Meanwhile he receives a second case, this case involves his ex-wife Jenny who has been coned thorough a fake charity scandal, Jenny helped the conman Nicholas Ashe (a alias) collect the money, now he has disappeared with it and has left Jenny to face the consequences. Then to complicate matters he receives a third case, this one from the Jockey Club to investigate several syndicates that have had some sketchy dealings. These dealings include a high profile racetrack con called Peter Rammileese and someone within the Jockey Club itself (which noone but Sid can find out about).


Plot & Themes
Tone of story - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
Time/era of story:
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
descript. of violence and chases - 20 %
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 %
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20 %
Crime Thriller Yes
Crime plotlets:
General Crime (including known murderer) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Race

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status:
Motive of antagonist - power
The antagonists are: - big business leader(s)
How sensitive is this character?
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters

Setting
City? Yes
City: - London
Farm/Ranch? Yes
Farm/Ranch: - ranch
Misc setting - scientific labs

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
Explicit sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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