I wasn’t all that enthusiastic about the last Dick Francis novel I reviewed, The Edge, so in justice I want to report on reading his 1984 novel, The Danger
The hero of The Danger is Andrew Douglas, an agent for a low-profile English enterprise called Liberty Market. Liberty Market is in the business of assisting the families of kidnap victims. They use their agents’ paramilitary skills to rescue the victims if possible; otherwise they do everything they can to make the ransom process as secure as possible.
At the beginning of this story, that process has broken down for Andrew. He is supervising, in collaboration with the police, the ransoming of an Italian heiress who is also a celebrity jockey, Alessia Cenci. Some of the police try to arrest the kidnappers prematurely, leading to a hostage situation and imminent danger to Alessia. Andrew, however, is able to negotiate the tensions down, and Alessia is finally released.
Because of his hard-won understanding of her post-traumatic stress, Alessia bonds with Andrew as she goes through the recovery process. When she goes to stay with a friend in England, she and Andrew are able to see more of each other, and she ends up helping him when he’s called on to rescue the toddler son of the owner of a champion race horse. Andrew suspects that a very intelligent, ruthless criminal is targeting members of the racing community for kidnapping, and that suspicion is validated when the chairman of the British Jockey Club is kidnapped in Washington, DC.
Andrew is the kind of hero you expect from a Dick Francis novel—brave, competent, decent and self-reliant. What sets this book apart, in my view, is the work the author clearly did on understanding the psychology of kidnap victims, and the stages of recovery. The section where Andrew helps to draw the horse owner’s rescued little boy out of his prison of fear is genuinely moving.
Highly recommended. Cautions for some adult language and mild adult situations.
