2008-04-29 Not so much a fast gallop as a sedate walk.

Dick Francis has been a hugely successful author over a period of thirty years and has a devoted following. It has been many years since I read any of his novels which I used to enjoy. However, I found myself struggling with UNDER ORDERS. I'm not sure if my tastes have changed or if Mr Francis is not at the top of his game in this novel. There seemed to be a great deal of over-explaining which slowed the pace down. There was a lot of detail about the racing industry and online betting; more than I felt I needed to know. Nor was it really necessary to know the detailed back-story of nearly every major character who appeared in the book.. There was also much made of the fact that Sid has an artificial arm. We were told the history of how he lost his arm and his battle to come to terms with it. As this is the fourth in the Sid Halley series, I'm sure regular readers knew all this before and for a first time reader, it wasn't all necessary. I had fond memories of earlier Dick Francis novels but sadly, UNDER ORDERS didn't live up to those memories.