Hot Water - P.G. Wodehouse

Ex-flames, murder, blackmail, break-ins, imposters… you might associate the adjectives better with a Sidney Sheldon novel. But when you mix all that with light hearted humour, you know it could only be Wodehouse.
Hot Water is an exceptional novel amongst all Wodehouse novels. Firstly, it’s more international than a normal Wodehouse novel which centers either in England or U.S.A. This one has France as the land of the crimes.
So there is a Wellington Gedge, an oppressed husband of a domineering wife who insists on him becoming an Ambassador of America to France. And with a phobia of all that is genteel and diplomatic, Mr. Gedge’s pining for his homeland America increases all the more. He breathes with relief as he finds out that his wife is planning to travel to England, which would give him the opportunity to participate in the merriment of the local carnival. And he is determined to do so despite being saddled with uncharitable guests like anti-alcohol senator Opal and his daughter Jane Opal, along with the proprietor of his rented Chateau Blissac, (his home for the non-French speaking audiences) Vicomte De Blissac.
A Packy Franklyn, the millionaire American football star, engaged to a Lady Beatrice Bracken, a sublime but scathing beauty, both get dragged into the plot when Lady Bracken asks his beau to befriend an intellectual novelist and a part time sound impressionist, Blair Eggleston, who in turn, is engaged to Jane Opal, the daughter of Senator Opal. Packy Franklyn finds himself increasingly drawn to Jane Opal, ever since he takes up the assignment of cutting Senator Opal’s hair. And as an additional favour to her, he agrees to withdraw a damning letter from the safe of Mrs. Gedge, who is using it as a device to blackmail the Senator into granting ambassadorship to her husband. And since Vicomte De Blissac is a friend of Packy, the footballer manages to get an admission when apparently Mr. Gedge murders the Vicomte.
That’s just the tip of the confusion, really. See, the problem is that Senator Opal thinks that his daughter is really engaged to Packy, and ends up hiring Eggleston as his valet. And then there are other people like a safe blower and a stick-up man and a con-man, Soup Slattery and Oily Carlisle, with their own twisted and sad love stories, who are after some jewels in the safe. Add a cook and her lover, a menacing secretary who could potentially be a detective, a butler who pronounces ‘Madam’ as ‘Modom’, and Lady Bracken and a boat, it certainly is an eventful book. And boundlessly funny I might add. You really ought to read up to find out who gets to the safe and which guy ends up with which girl. It’s a guaranteed stress buster.

Blood Sport - Dick Francis

If you’ve got a Dick Francis two-story omnibus, then you might as well read both the stories at one go.
Blood Sport, as far as Dick Francis stories go, had quite a convoluted plot. And for the first time amongst the four books of his that I have read, I felt at a loss as the racing terminologies started raining. And that did have quite a ruining effect for me despite the story itself being quite fast paced.
The hero, Gene Hawkins, is a ‘civil servant’. The implications of the job title and what he really does for a living are never really clarified. That aspect of Gene hangs like a constant mystery throughout the book, which really adds a lot of appeal to the character. Is he an assassin? A spy? Espionage agent? Police? It’s anyone’s guess. His talents, though not up at par with, say, Jason Bourne, are still pretty damn good at uncovering truths. But his objective is not, as he says, to punish, but to prevent. I wish Gene wasn’t as suicidal however. But Dick Francis does a splendid job of imposing a suicidal trait on such a strong and determined character. And when you read the story you really do realize how the internal struggle of Gene impacts the direction of the path he takes, and the flow of the story. Dick Francis gets down to being poignant. Can’t say I expected it from a writer of horse racing thrillers. But he does a good job at it.
So Gene, given he is some sort of a spy or something, is asked by his employer, Mr. Keeble to look for Dave Teller’s missing horses. He lands in America, in a conquest to find Chrysallis after a murder attempt on Dave Teller, which probably prompted Gene to take the assignment up. Gene, with his half thoughts of killing himself, takes it up with a shrug as one more thing to keep him from killing himself, probably thinking that if he could live and save a life, it might just be worth it.
Chrysallis is the third world class stallions to be stolen in a fairly short space of time, the other two being Alyx and Showman. And Gene, as he retrieves Chrysallis, unearths a shocking and an elaborate fraud, which would shake up the world racing community and risks his as much as his friend’s lives. It’s good that he carries a lugger around in an under-arm holster. You never know when you’d need it. Especially in Gene’s line of work!

Forfeit - Dick Francis

Horse Racing, a brilliant protagonist, and firm, dark, writing which sounds exactly like the narration of Sin City or Max Payne in your head. That makes a very palatable package. And that’s the formula of Dick Francis. His writing is not complicated, but he creates an air of a sort of a calm thrill. If you know what I mean. You don’t exactly imagine a double-woofer, stereophonic death metal music when you read the climax of Dick Francis novel. Nor are deaths unnecessarily graphic. But the thrill is abundantly present.
Forfeit is about James Tyrone. He is a scandal stirring, scam busting reporter at a magazine called Blaze. But this time, the scam that he is trying to prevent threatens to get a bit too nasty for his taste, and a bit too personal as well.
The scam is brilliant in its simplicity. Get a horse piped as a favourite. Gather huge amounts as bets in his favour. And then prevent him from running the race and pocket all the bets since the race counts as a forfeit. As James Tyrone, or Ty, tries a hand at preventing it from happening one more time, he finds himself at the receiving end of physical harm, blackmail, and overconsumption of alcohol. And it’s up to him to get out of the situation he finds himself in. I say, that’s a complicated job to have!
Again, as in most Dick Francis books, the plot is nothing sensational. I mean, you’d think, it’s eventually going to be a plot about horse racing and how sensational it’s going to be? There are obviously not going to be any nuclear missiles that will be fired between nations. But Dick Francis keeps you interested throughout. And that’s where this book succeeds as well.