Second Wind

Dick, Francis

ISBN 10: 0141801077 ISBN 13: 9780141801070

Publisher: Penguin, 1999

Synopsis

Meteorologist Perry Stuart chiefly predicts period of English drizzle, with bursts of heavier rain and sunshine to follow. His life is calm and ordered, his face familiar to every British household. Stuart's profound weather knowledge and accuracy has given him high status among forecasters, but no physical baptism by storm. Not, that is, until he is offered a Caribbean hurricane-chasing ride in a small aeroplane as a holiday diversion. But Stuart learns more secrets from the flight than the wind speeds - and back home in England faces threats and dangers as deadly as anything nature can evolve.

About this title

Review:

Dick Francis's legion of admirers can relax: his year off from writing is over and a new vigour has entered his style. Longtime readers will be happy to find the customary racetrack skulduggery, galvanised by some fascinating new elements. The very opening of Second Wind signals something new, with Francis's protagonist fighting for his life in a Caribbean storm at sea: "But now, as near dead as dammit, I tumbled like a rag-doll piece of flotsam in towering gale-driven seas that sucked unimaginable tons of water from the deeps ..."

In flashback, we are catapulted into the world of meteorologist Perry Stuart who agrees to fly through the eye of storm on Trox Island, a blighted place steeped in guano and harbouring a nasty secret. When the reader encounters details of the racing world in Francis's earlier thrillers, it had the satisfying ring of authenticity. The same is true in Second Wind, as Stuart's character was developed with the help of BBC weatherman John Kettley. Although a new venue for Francis, he still has the knack of quickening the readers' pulse with a few carefully chosen words: "Despair was too strong a word for it. Perhaps despondency was better. When they came for me, they came with guns." --Barry Forshaw

Review:

'Fast-moving action.' (The Washington Post)

'Francis is a genius.' (The New York Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0141801077
• ISBN 13: 9780141801070
• Binding: Audio Cassette
• Number of pages: 2