In reading all the tributes and obits about author Dick Francis, this quote, published in one of the tributes, stood out to me:

“Not to read Dick Francis because you don’t like horses,” remarked one reviewer in Newsweek, “is like not reading Dostoyevsky because you don’t believe in God.”

Indeed!

Francis, who died at age 89 on Feb. 14, 2010, did use horses, horse racing and the horsey set in many of his 42 novels. But horses were only the background. His real focus was on how ordinary people deal with each other, especially when overwhelmed by others’ betrayal, greed and power plays.

To say Francis just wrote about horses is to ignore that he was one of the first authors to successfully show that mysteries don’t always have to feature cops or private investigators. Francis showed the world that ordinary people can be pretty good sleuths on their own.

 If Francis had just written about horses, his books wouldn’t have been on best-sellers lists for more than 40 years with sales of more than 60 million worldwide.

 If Francis had just written about horses, would he have been the only three-time winner of the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award for Best Novel? He won that for “Forfeit” in 1970, “Whip Hand” in 1981 and “Come to Grief” in 1996.

He also took the British Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger Award in 1979 and the Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement in 1989.

In 1996, the Mystery Writers of American gave him the Grand Master Award, the organization’s highest award. He also was named a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000.

  Francis started out as a professional jockey and was named Champion National Hunt Jockey in 1953-54. He was jockey to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother from 1953-’57. But his career was cut short when he suffered a serious fall in 1957 so he became the racing correspondent for London’s Sunday Express.

   Anyone who met Francis could not help but like him. He was soft-spoken, generous and a real gentleman. He would often help new authors and seemed to relish contact with his fans.

   Francis left an incredible body of work that seldom disappointed. His final novel, “Crossfire,” is scheduled to be published later this year.

May he rest in peace.

  For more about Francis, here are two in-depth tributes – from London’s  The Telegraph and The New York Times.