The Danger

Andrew Douglas is an international expert on kidnapping. He is called to Italy, where Alessia Cenci, a young Italian lady jockey, a small English boy, and the Senior Steward of the Jockey Club have been kidnapped one after the other. Intense, one of Francis' best.

OK book, not very satisfactory. It's a little too - abstract? The fight is too vague and distant (until right at the end, but even then it's not a direct fight, just surviving and escaping).

Dick Francis is good at writing a cracker of a thriller and this is no exception. As usual there's horses involved but this time it's almost as a peripheral idea. The story revolves around a man, Andrew Douglas, who helps rescue kidnap victims and a couple of the people he helps rescue. It not only

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deals with the kidnapping itself but also the aftereffects of the kidnapping on Alessia Cenci.

It's interesting and engaging but pretty predictable.

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this is my favorite book of all time!!!

When a string of kidnappings rocks the horse racing world, Andrew Douglas is brought in to recover the missing-without becoming the next victim.

Here is not much difference between a kidnapper and Mr. Andrew Douglas, they are almost synonymous except for the part that they are each others adversary. One does it and the other prevents it.
Most of us get hysterical by mere mentioned by the word kidnap forget about actually tackling it but you

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see, for Andrew it’s a piece of cake, it’s his bread and butter it’s what he does for a living . So if you deal with something on a daily basis then you become exceptionally good at it and so is Andrew, in dealing with kidnappings. So when this case in Italy pops up, it doesn’t get more than its share of attention. This case involved a female jockey named Alessia who also daughter of a millionaire being abducted. And then there were complexities , the ransom job was bungled by the Italian carabenerie.
But alas Alessia was rescued with the payment of the ransom money behind the police ‘s back. Victim rescued , kidnappers nabbed, therefore case closed.
But then there were two more kidnappings of similar types in London and Washington and both related to the racing world, this made Andrew sceptical about all these cases being related. Is it a job of single mastermind, then what about the kidnappers who were caught in Italy??? Were they a deceit to allow the original kidnapper to flee??? With all these questions Andrew embarks on the journey to unveil an intriguing tale of money, fame and deceit.
This is my chance encounter with Mr. Dick Francis, in the absence of my regular mystery writers I gave Mr Francis a chance. And to my surprise I was quite taken aback with his novelty and style.The story is terse yet elaborate,simple yet complex . The story is able to catch and hold your attention at the exact precise time as a suspense should do.
The only shortcoming which I felt was the story lack a central plot to stick to , like a liaison which can connect all the aspect of the story other than that I think Mr. Francis did just fine.

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Obligatory cheesy romance involving phlegmatic, courageous, compassionate, gentlemanly Englishman. Lots of people tell him how great he his, and he is impressed by their perceptiveness. On the other hand, the details of the different kidnappings are generally well-thought out, and the book actually

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provokes some thought about the vulnerability of people to kidnap.

When the protagonist is acting as his employer's chauffeur he plays dumb, pretending he doesn't know what is going on. The kidnapper falls for this, inexplicably; I would have stabbed him on the spot. Ending is cliche.

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I read this book again because of the kidnapping scenes. I'll have a kidnapping in my next book, and I wanted to review how Francis handled it.

I'm not a super-big fan of Dick Francis, despite having read most of his books, but this one is much better than the others. It's less of a who-done-it and

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more a book showing the behind-the-scenes action of kidnapping.

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This was a very exciting read. It's about kidnapping in the horse scene, where these kidnappings take place in different countries and yet all are interconnected. Andrew Douglas has his hands full to reduce the ransom demands, but also to liberate the victims.
The story is fast-paced, you can hardly

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catch your breath.

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The professional narrating this mystery is a kidnap councilor who helps the family of the victim negotiate with kidnappers, interact with police and deal with the aftermath. The characters are real, the action deliberate until it becomes frantic, and the subject matter inherently interesting. This

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is at least the 3rd time I have read this, and thanks to a poor memory, I still found it exciting.

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Andrew Douglas works for a firm that negotiates the release of kidnapping victims. As the book opens, he is on the case of kidnapped Italian jockey Alessia Cenci at the request of her father. After that case is resolved, Andrew is called on to work the case of a 3-year-old boy who had been

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kidnapped on an English beach. When he learns that Alessia knows the boy’s father from racing circles, he suspects that the same person is behind both kidnappings. Andrew doesn’t know who the kidnapper is, but he knows what he looks like. Unfortunately, the kidnapper also knows what Andrew looks like. A third kidnapping takes Andrew to Washington, D.C., where he hopes to catch the kidnapper before the kidnapper catches him.

Most Francis novels are page-turners, and this is no exception. It’s not without its flaws, though. The connection to racing circles seems more contrived to fit the Francis formula than a necessary element of the crime. The pacing is also off. It starts and ends with a bang, but it leaves things unresolved for the hero. Can Andrew go back to work after his experience of being kidnapped, and will he and Alessia become a couple?

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"The Danger" was definitely my favourite Dick Francis novel so far. I liked that the protagonist was not tied to the racing industry. Instead, Andrew Douglas was a partner in a firm called Liberty Market which specialised in kidnappings - how to prevent them and how to respond when they do, and

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their main goal was to return victims back to their families.

As usual, the hero was calm, capable and intelligent, and I really liked Andrew and the other characters he interacted with to find the kidnapper.

I also liked that the action moved from Italy, England and then America. The novel started well and the tension continued to the end. Overall, "The Danger" was a terrific page-turner which I thoroughly enjoyed.

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