Off to the races with Dick Francis in Banker

My two great loves are books, and horse racing.

When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to be a jockey. At 5 foot 3 3/4 inches, it's the only thing in my life that I've been too tall for.

But my deep desire to live life on the track gets spun up with glee when I find a book that brings the daring world of horse racing alive, and Banker does more than that. It goes behind the scenes to the underbelly of racing, revealing the schemes and cheats that industry bottom dwellers use to get a leg up in the game.

Banker is written from the perspective of an investment banker, rising through the ranks at his family owned financial company. His parents gambled their lives away at the track, and since he grew up in that environment, it comes to him to make a decision on whether or not to loan several million dollars to a horse breeder with visions of producing award-winning foals.

The book is rife with charlatans, cheats, gamblers, murderers, and a few good people trying to sort through the muck.

As a writer, I don't know that I'll ever write a story about the track. But as a reader, I'm glad that such books exist, and I hope to read more of Dick Francis's horse mysteries soon.

Find out the secret behind the mysteries of Banker on Amazon.com here.

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