SOURCE: "The Pain: Trials by Fire in the Novels of Dick Francis," in The Armchair Detective, Vol. 27, No. 3, Summer, 1994, pp. 349-57.

In the following essay, Schaffer discusses the use of violence and injury in Francis's novels.

Dick Francis is no stranger to pain. For over a decade (1946 to 1957), as an amateur and then professional steeplechase jockey in England, he suffered countless bruises and 21 broken bones (not counting ribs) from the inevitable racing falls, followed by horses galloping over him. In his autobiography. The Sport of Queens, Francis details the variety of injuries he suffered over the years, emphasizing the ability of jockeys to heal rapidly and even to ride with broken bones. He takes an athlete's pride in his high tolerance for pain and injury, shrugging them off casually as merely something to be expected in his profession, yet offering fairly frequent and detailed descriptions of them.

In...