Product Description

Meteorologist Perry Stuart is offered a Caribbean hurricane-chasing ride in a small aeroplane as a holiday diversion. But he learns more secrets from the flight than wind speeds, and back home in England faces threats and dangers as deadly as anything nature can evolve.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #129508 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-08
• Released on: 2000-09-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Amazon.co.uk 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

Customer Reviews

Rather disappointing
I'm sorry, Mr. Francis I wish I had read these reviews before buying the book - I wouldn't have wasted my money.

For the most, readers of Dick Francis novels most probably like the horseracing world background - there was none to speak of in this novel. As for it being a "Thriller" I didn't feel that at any stage of the book.

Your Always on a Winner with Dick Francis

Dick Francis has written in excess 60 books, many if not all of them international best sellers. Many short stories, his autobiography and the biography of arguably the greatest jockey that ever lived, Lester Piggott. Dick Francis himself was of course the Queen's jockey. So there is not much, if anything he does not know about horse racing, the background to virtually all of his novels

The one thread that always runs through the books of Dick Francis is meticulous research. The odds are that you will learn something new every time you read one of his novels. For those interested in horse racing, which to be honest I am not, they must be manna from heaven. But it is definitely not essential to be interested in the sport of kings.
As with all books and particularly with the number that Dick Francis has written, some appeal to the reader more than others but the author has always maintained an extremely high standard with his books and there is not reason to believe that this one is any different.

This book takes us into the realms of hurricanes, something we know little or nothing about in England. The enormous power that they generate is difficult to understand for someone who has never witnessed one. When Perry Stuart, a meteorologist goes on a hurricane chasing ride in the Caribbean, he learns about a great deal more than the speed of the wind.

A very nice change from all action taking place in Newmarket
I thought it was great. It is a good read...as usual Francis creates pictures with words - while the plot was easy to follow, characters not complicated... a perfect afternoon entertainment- I quite enjoyed it. If you like all the action to take place on the race course, this book is not for you... but if you want to follow a meterologist's trek... good fun. Maybe he will bring the character back.