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with wedding bells ringing for Stuart and Belladonna, though,
let me say: she's already romantically linked to Stuart's high-flying
friend, Ironside, though it's a fiery relationship not sanctioned
by Harvey himself.
Following me so far? Good. We're almost done--just a couple
more paragraphs.
Despite his grandmother's wise warnings to stay away from
the race horse and everyone involved with its owner, Stuart meets
up with Ironside in Florida, at the house of one of Harvey's
wealthy American friends. Robin Darcy is an exotic mushroom /
sod baron (yes, one must assume they do exist) with a generous
side as a house host. Free room, free food, free booze: Stuart
and Ironside seem to have the world on a string. But when Darcy
offers to rent a plane so that Stuart and Ironside can fly through
a developing hurricane (every meteorologist's dream, apparently,
if not yours), the gesture seems too grand for even the best
of hosts. Especially after Stuart learns that Darcy wants them
to stop off at a place called Trox Island--a barren, tiny speck
of land notable chiefly for its guano production--and take a
few photographs. Darcy won't say why he needs the photographs,
precisely, implying obscurely (and unconvincingly) that he's
interested in mushrooms on the island. Then Stuart discovers
that Darcy has actually bought, rather than rented, the
plane, for this single flight.
Suspicious behavior, eh? But a meteorologist and a hurricane
are hard to keep apart, apparently. Stuart can only hope, it
seems, that Ironside (who's perfectly serviceable flying around
England in sunny weather) is up to snuff when it comes to dashing
through a Category Five hurricane--and finding a tiny island
in the middle of nowhere.
Francis, known for writing mysteries set around racetracks,
is in uncharted territory this time out, but he's done his research
well, and the flight through the hurricane rings true. But the
high-adventure, teeth-chattering flight carries us only through
the first third of the book, and to reveal anything of the rest
would be unfair. In meteorological terms, 'second wind' refers
to the heightened intensity of the second wall of wind and rain
that strikes after a hurricane's eye has passed. By choosing
it as his title, Francis apparently means to imply, metaphorically,
that his mystery promises a second, unexpected onslaught after
the hurricane--and he certainly delivers it. Second Wind
takes several unexpected, startling turns before everything's
finally resolved.
Second Wind isn't flawless, though. Some of Stuart's
backstory seems a little too much like a storefront display,
as if Francis is simply grafting details onto a blank character
without making them feel natural and organic. And Stuart's motivation--particularly
when it comes to flying through a hurricane with an amateur pilot--seems
undeveloped. (Surely, he would mull over the decision at greater
length than Francis allows him.) In general, Francis sometimes
seems a little rushed and the book too much a thin artifice to
hold up, particularly given the number of unexpected changes
of direction his plot takes.
This is merely a mystery, of course; what Graham Greene would
have called a light 'entertainment.' And we shouldn't grade it
too harshly against the standards of a more serious genre. It
is decidedly a fast, easy read. And, as Francis always manages
to do, he's given his book that hard-to-define addictive quality
without turning it into a cheap page-turner. He's a good, spare
stylist, and the reader isn't forced to wade through weak prose
to arrive at the solution breathless and beaten, in the tradition
of too many easy bestsellers. But Francis has produced such wonderful
mysteries in the past that the reader can't help wishing he'd
accomplished a little more, this time out.
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