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Nerve
| Date first published | 1964 |  |
| ISBN Number | 0-330-24622-4 | |
| Page Count | 219 p/b | |
| h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback | ||
Storyline
A man doesn't publicly shoot himself in the head in broad daylight with no warning. But Art Mathews did. Pip Pankhurst found his shin bone sticking out of his leg, and his rides over for the season. Grant Oldfield needed help. The kind a psychiatrist gives. It was as though there was a hoodoo on the whole jockey tribe.
Then Robb Finn started riding losers. Too many to be a coincidence. thirteen out of fifteen too many. Finn needs to know just what the hell is going on. However no one is talking.
But Finn soon realises he is alone in a world where the only pointers are violence, dope, and the malignat force of twisted envy..
Review
This is one of Francis, stock in trade novels. Jockey, up against the odds battling an unseen foe. Considering the age of the book, nearly fifty years at the time of review, it has not aged to badly. One or two things have changed, men no longer routinely where hats, and the level of deference to senior people has all but disappeared. I suspect that the doping of the horses would now be picked up by the standard drug testing that now routinely takes place at race meetings. However that doesn't mean that it couldn't still happen.Robb Finn is also from a quite wealthy background, with mother and father and rest of the family all firmly established and famous in the music world. Perhaps what would be regarded as a privileged world now. it does mean though that Robb can do what he wants.
What has not changed is the attitude to TV personalities, and at that time it would have been even more significant as TV was still very much in its infancy, so the personalities could beguile people into liking them. The only problem being the cult of personality being used to destroy the very people he preposes to hold in high esteem.
In fact the culprit gets off very lightly considering that he tries to kill Finn, in a most cold blooded way. I'm in no doubt that the imprisonment was designed to kill. To see what I mean you'll just have to read the book.
The story is pretty standard fair, with a newish author yet to reach his full powers, but even so, a nicely crafted story, tightly written, and not easy to put down.
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