In almost forty crime novels since Dead Cert in 1962, Dick Francis has focused upon people whose lives are transformed by occurrences that surprise them and are beyond their control. Whereas this pattern is commonplace of the genre, Francis departs from the norm. His detective is not an outsider dealing with a case that has happened to come his way, but rather he is a member of the group into which criminality has intruded. Nero Wolfe, Lew Archer, Charles Paris, Inspector Maigret, and Adam Dalgliesh may never again meet the principals in their cases; most Francis detectives, on the other hand, continue to live with their erstwhile clients, regularly seeing them at the Jockey Club and elsewhere.

Therefore, solving cases enables the detectives as well as their peers to resume normal lives.

Normality in a Francis novel means in large measure adherence to the code of the...