Dick Francis's legion of admirers can relax: his year off from writing since the 1998 publication of Field of Thirteen is over, and a new vigor has entered his style. Longtime readers will be happy to find the customary racetrack skullduggery, galvanized by some fascinating new elements.

The very opening of Second Wind signals something new, with Francis's protagonist, meteorologist Perry Stuart, fighting for his life as he flies through the eye of storm on Trox Island, a blighted place steeped in guano and harboring a nasty secret. "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 ...."

When the reader encountered details of the racing world in Francis's earlier thrillers such as Whip Hand and Reflex, they had the satisfying ring of authenticity. The same is true in Second Wind--Stuart's character was developed with the help of BBC weatherman John Kettley.

Although this is a new venue for Francis, he still has a knack for quickening the reader's 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

From Publishers Weekly
With his 40th novel in as many years, grand master Dick Francis isn't up to his usual high standards, but fans know that even a subpar Francis is in the 95th percentile. Here the typical Francis hero is a young Englishman of a vanishing breed: smart, self-effacing although very good at his job, polite and thoroughly decent. Perry Stuart is a well-known TV weatherman for the BBC who was orphaned as a child and raised by his beloved, now crippled grandmother, who remains tartly sensible ("If you can't fix it, think about something else"). Joining fellow BBC weatherman Kris Ironside on a flying jaunt into the eye of a Caribbean hurricane, Perry survives when the plane crashes and washes up on a tiny, apparently abandoned island where the houses were destroyed by the hurricane. In a hut, he stumbles across a safe containing a mysterious file folder whose contents he cannot decipher. After a crew wearing radiation-protection suits arrive by air to rescue him, Perry's troubles are only beginning, as he slowly becomes aware of a sinister scheme in which well-off people are brokering enriched uranium to foreign nogoodniks. Among the cast are mushroom mogul Robin Darcy and his flashy American wife, two old SIS spooksAthink an aging James Bond and a tottery MAand a beautiful nurse who is Perry's circumspect love interest. Perry continues to encounter danger: the sabotage of another plane he's on, threats by a muscle-bound thug in Grand Cayman. Francis's writing is smooth and intelligent, moving the reader right along, but the end of the book is more than a tad far-fetched. Still, ex-RAF pilot and champion steeplechaser Francis knows his stuffAand of course race courses figure in the plot. BOMC main selection; Audio Books main selection; 3-city author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Brilliance Audio is first out of the starting gate with this recording of Francis's 40th book, which may be one of his most compelling yet. The novel starts with Perry Stuart fighting for his life in the towering hurricane-driven sea and is a nonstop page-turner until the last word, taking us inside the modern worlds of meteorology, physics, and terrorism. Stuart, BBC meteorologist, has always wanted to fly through a hurricane. When he gets his chance, he finds that stormy weather is the least of his problems, for the safe harbor he finds on an uninhabited island will lead to later deaths and even targets Stuart for terrorist attacks. The performance by Michael Page is guaranteed to be a winner with mystery and suspense fans. This story shows that Francis, Grand Master of mystery and three-time Poe Award winner, has not retired from writing thrillers. Recommended for all libraries.-Theresa Connors, Arkansas Tech Univ., Russellville Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In his fortieth novel, Francis introduces a decidedly unhorsey hero, BBC meteorologist Perry Stuart, who, with his best friend Kris, an amateur pilot, has long dreamed of flying through the eye of a hurricane. In an odd twist of fate, all the right circumstances fall into place: Hurricane Odin forms over the Caribbean; Perry and Kris have overlapping vacations; and Kris finds a wealthy Florida businessman willing to finance their adventure. As part of the deal, Kris secretly agrees to detour to tiny Trox Island and pick up a mysterious package. Unfortunately, Hurricane Odin has other plans for Perry and Kris, and their plane goes down in the storm-whipped seas. Ironically, Perry is cast ashore on Trox, which is deserted except for a herd of cows and a concrete bunker containing a safe full of strange-looking documents in assorted foreign languages. Rescued and back home in England, Perry finds himself the target of unknown assassins. Vowing to find out who's after him and why, Perry winds up playing secret agent and uncovering a plot to sell ingredients for nuclear weapons to terrorists. Francis offers up intrigue, adventure, and a gripping, fast-paced plot. This one is certain to please his legions of fans, even those who think they only like the racing mysteries. Emily Melton

From Kirkus Reviews
Francis celebrates his 40th horses-plus suspenser by taking his hero on a vacation in the Caribbeaninto the eye of a hurricane that will lead him to still deeper mysteries. Perry Stuart doesn't just read the weather report for the BBC; he's a meteorologist and Ph.D. physicist whose predictions are followed religiously by (of course) racehorse owners all over England. But Caspar Harvey is in no position to take advantage of Perry's clear-and-fast forecast for an upcoming race date; his prize filly's come down with a mysterious ailment. Nothing daunted despite his beloved grandmother's heebie-jeebies, Perry takes off with his friend and colleague Kris Ironside, a daredevil amateur pilot, for Grand Cayman, where Harvey's friend, American mushroom grower Robin Darcy, has bought an airplane Kris can borrow to satisfy a long-held dream: flying through Category-3 Hurricane Odin. Francis (Field of Thirteen, 1998, etc.) does a masterly job building portents of doom through the first third of this adventure, and no one but Perry will be surprised when the flight maroons him back on Trox Island, a tiny scrap of land he'd explored briefly with Kris on Robin's behalf as the price of borrowing the aircraft. But with Perry's rescue from the island, the mode of the story shifts abruptly from suspense to mystery, as threats to life and limb give way to a series of riddles. What errand did Robin want Kris to run on the island? What's the meaning of the coded figures Perry found inside a locked safe during his stay? What claims does Robin's Unified Trading Company (whose members seem to include virtually every member of the small cast) have on the island? Why is Perry, days after his rescue, now taking sick? And what does his illness have to do with the malady that sidelined that filly? Urgent questions, all of them, answered with of all Francis's usual unobtrusive technical masteryeven if fans looking for the thrills he more often provides think the action here trails off long before the finish line. (Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
A lot of writers these days get compared to other writers. How many blurbs have you read comparing the author to Raymond Chandler, Carl Hiaasen, or Mary Higgins Clark?

I've never seen Dick Francis compared to anyone. The reason is simple. He is unto himself in style and plotting alike. If he resembles anybody, it is John Buchan, one of Alfred Hitchcock's favorite thriller writers, or Robert Louis Stevenson.

Especially Stevenson.

Take Second Wind, Francis's new novel. One cannot possibly read the first sentence without reading on: "Delirium brings comfort to the dying." Nor can one read the first chapter without being caught up in the sweep of the story. Except for sagas, many — if not most — contemporary novels are set in relatively short spans of time. Ross MacDonald even suggested that the scope of the modern mystery not exceed 24 hours.

But, like Stevenson's, most of Francis's books have a sweep that gives one a great sense of adventure. In Second Wind, for instance, our hero, Perry Stuart, is a much-respected TV meteorologist in jolly old England. But then another meteorologist offers him the opportunity to witness the power and majesty — and terror — of weather in its rawest state. He offers to take our man along chasing hurricanes in the Caribbean. Some of the best writing Francis has ever done is in the hurricane chapters. He's always been precise. Rarely an excess word. Here there are moments that are almost Hemingway-esque — so spare yet so powerful in their descriptive powers that I went back and read them again afterfinishingthe book.

Francis, being the master plotter, uses the hurricane section of the book to accomplish two things. He wants to treat his readers to a true adventure — and he wants to set in motion one of his subtlest plots. Because when Perry Stuart gets back to England he learns — as most of John Buchan's heroes always learned — that he has somehow gotten himself in trouble with some ruthless and brutal people.

This is one of Francis's best novels in some time. The characters — especially the grandmother to whom Stuart frequently refers — stay with you long after you finish the book, and the flying sequences are flat-out brilliant. By God, Dick Francis is better than ever!

ANNOTATION

Flying in the eye of a hurricane, a plane carrying TV reporter Perry Stuart crashes in the Caribbean. In this manner Stuart discovers an island of uranium smugglers, a find which puts his life in danger.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Perry Stuart, TV meteorologist working routinely before cameras, chiefly predicts periods of English drizzle, with bursts of heavier rain and sunshine to follow. His life calm and ordered, his face familiar to every British household, Stuart's profound weather knowledge and accuracy have given him high status among forecasters, but no physical baptism by storm.

Not, that is, until a fellow forecaster offers him a Caribbean hurricane-chasing ride in a small aeroplane as a holiday diversion. By frightening accident, Stuart learns more secrets from the flight than wind speeds—and back home in England he faces threats and danger as deadly as anything that nature can evolve.

SYNOPSIS

A TV weatherman takes a hurricane-chasing ride in a small airplane as a holiday diversion. But a frightening accident teaches him more secrets than wind speeds. And back home in England, he faces threats and danger as deadly as anything nature can dish out.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

With his 40th novel in as many years, grand master Dick Francis isn't up to his usual high standards, but fans know that even a subpar Francis is in the 95th percentile. Here the typical Francis hero is a young Englishman of a vanishing breed: smart, self-effacing although very good at his job, polite and thoroughly decent. Perry Stuart is a well-known TV weatherman for the BBC who was orphaned as a child and raised by his beloved, now crippled grandmother, who remains tartly sensible ("If you can't fix it, think about something else"). Joining fellow BBC weatherman Kris Ironside on a flying jaunt into the eye of a Caribbean hurricane, Perry survives when the plane crashes and washes up on a tiny, apparently abandoned island where the houses were destroyed by the hurricane. In a hut, he stumbles across a safe containing a mysterious file folder whose contents he cannot decipher. After a crew wearing radiation-protection suits arrive by air to rescue him, Perry's troubles are only beginning, as he slowly becomes aware of a sinister scheme in which well-off people are brokering enriched uranium to foreign nogoodniks. Among the cast are mushroom mogul Robin Darcy and his flashy American wife, two old SIS spooks--think an aging James Bond and a tottery M--and a beautiful nurse who is Perry's circumspect love interest. Perry continues to encounter danger: the sabotage of another plane he's on, threats by a muscle-bound thug in Grand Cayman. Francis's writing is smooth and intelligent, moving the reader right along, but the end of the book is more than a tad far-fetched. Still, ex-RAF pilot and champion steeplechaser Francis knows his stuff--and of course race courses figure in the plot. BOMC main selection; Audio Books main selection; 3-city author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Jon L. Breen - Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

B.B.C. weathercaster Perry Stuart travels to Florida to join a manic-depressive colleague's latest adventure: flying into a hurricane. An opening chapter at Newmarket involving the mysterious illness of a great two-year-old filly provides the obligatory horse racing element. This isn't the best Francis, but the author's style, sense of story, and way with characters leave fans to hope his second wind is good for many more novels.

(Newark, N.J.) Sunday Star-Ledger

Vintage Francis!

Harry Mount

The descriptions of climatic conditions, particularly those of hurricanes are gripping￯﾿ﾽ In his Eightieth year Dick Francis still has the ability to whip up a quick-flowing plot.
&151#; The Times Literary Supplement

Kirkus Reviews

Francis celebrates his 40th horses-plus suspenser by taking his hero on a vacation in the Caribbean—into the eye of a hurricane that will lead him to still deeper mysteries. Perry Stuart doesn't just read the weather report for the BBC; he's a meteorologist and Ph.D. physicist whose predictions are followed religiously by (of course) racehorse owners all over England. But Caspar Harvey is in no position to take advantage of Perry's clear-and-fast forecast for an upcoming race date; his prize filly's come down with a mysterious ailment. Nothing daunted despite his beloved grandmother's heebie-jeebies, Perry takes off with his friend and colleague Kris Ironside, a daredevil amateur pilot, for Grand Cayman, where Harvey's friend, American mushroom grower Robin Darcy, has bought an airplane Kris can borrow to satisfy a long-held dream: flying through Category-3 Hurricane Odin. Francis (Field of Thirteen, 1998, etc.) does a masterly job building portents of doom through the first third of this adventure, and no one but Perry will be surprised when the flight maroons him back on Trox Island, a tiny scrap of land he'd explored briefly with Kris on Robin's behalf as the price of borrowing the aircraft. But with Perry's rescue from the island, the mode of the story shifts abruptly from suspense to mystery, as threats to life and limb give way to a series of riddles. What errand did Robin want Kris to run on the island? What's the meaning of the coded figures Perry found inside a locked safe during his stay? What claims does Robin's Unified Trading Company (whose members seem to include virtually every member of the small cast) have on the island? Why is Perry, days after his rescue, nowtaking sick? And what does his illness have to do with the malady that sidelined that filly? Urgent questions, all of them, answered with of all Francis's usual unobtrusive technical mastery—even if fans looking for the thrills he more often provides think the action here trails off long before the finish line. (Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection)

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