Reflex

Philip Nore is a professional jockey and an amateur photographer, and it's the latter interest that gets him into trouble in this novel. Nore was acquainted with George Millace, a very good sports photographer who often frequented the race courses where Nore rode. Millace has recently died in an aut......more

I've said it before and here I am saying it again: nobody writes candy mysteries like Francis. His protagonists are likable, the villains appropriately dislikable, and you always learn something. The formula is simple and consistently adhered to, but the books are not the worse for it. This is a fin......more

Loved it. The technical photography info was fascinating. For the times, Francis's writing on homosexuality was humane and civilized. The treatment of a muted emotional life as a result of childhood damage was beautifully done. Overall, one gets an impression of Francis as an enormously warm, though......more

What I like best about Francis' early work is that quite aside from the mystery angle, they are stories. Good stories, well told, well plotted, with decent use of the language. They don't depend too heavily on someone explaining the whole deal; while we follow the main character's thought processes,......more

Philip Nore is struggling to decide what he is going to do as his career as a jockey winds down. His other passion is photography. He doesn’t realize what a great photographer he is until the death of George Millace a racing photographer. Philip finds that George has apparently been blackmailing peo......more