Reflex

Dick Francis — a British writer, jockey, and journalist.

Born on October 31, 1920 in Wales. His Royal Highness’s jockey—Dick Francis—didn’t plan to be a writer. Starting at age five, he couldn’t imagine himself as anyone other than a rider (jockey was a family profession of the Francises: both his father and his grandfather were). War forced him to leave his beloved career: Francis became a military pilot. After the war, returning to horses, the future writer went on to achieve a series of victories in leading competitions; he took part in a total of more than 350 races, becoming one of the most successful postwar jockeys. In March 1953, the royal trainer Peter Cazalet invited Dick to take part in races and introduced him to the Queen. Performing on royal horses brought Francis international fame. On March 4, 1956, a famous horse fall happened at the Grand National steeplechase—Devon Loch, the horse Dick rode. The reasons for the fall (seizure, fright, microinfarction, etc.) are still analyzed, and after the fall Francis became even more famous than many of the race winners.

As a result of a chain of coincidences, the main character ends up with a box of damaged negatives by a professional photographer who died in a car accident. And since he himself is interested in photography, he becomes curious: “Why did he keep all this junk? Typical mistakes that are of no interest whatsoever.” Solving this mystery with his knowledge of the craft, he comes to the conclusion that the photographer was a blackmailer, and the box was a cleverly stored repository of kompromat. The hero faces a dilemma: restore justice, expose the criminals—destroying the life of the dead photographer’s wife and his son (they will be declared villains)—or keep everything secret. But his plain human curiosity plays a trick on him: against his will, the secret becomes known to the criminals.