SOURCE: "Take a Walk on the Wild Side," in The Washington Post Book World, November 18, 1990, p. 9.

In the following review, Stewart praises Francis's impeccable research for Longshot, and comments on how Francis deals with expletives in the novel.

There are two kinds of readers: those who like heroes and those who like anti-heroes. The hero, in general, is unswervingly honorable, unquestionably decent, unabashedly straight. Ambiguity never pokes a finger in his eye. And unlike his opposite, the anti-hero, he doesn't seem to stumble onto paths of virtue by way of an accidental detour in the existential maze. He's there because it's simply in his bones to be there.

And there, in a nutshell, is the charm (or, depending on your attitude, the drawback) of the Dick Francis hero—the man who keeps appearing, under various names and selected occupations, in Francis's intelligent and well-crafted books.

Longshot, his 29th...