Decider - Authored by Dick Francis - Published in 1993

The ‘Decider’ is Lee Morris, a thirty five year old architect and builder, who likes to take up restoration projects; his current project is a huge barn house which belongs to his family, which consists of six kids and his wife. Amanda and Lee were married when they were nineteen, high school sweethearts. Over time the two, though living together, have become estranged, putting up a brave front for the boys sake, and respectfully keeping to having civil relations with each other.

It is Easter week, and the family is staying in a converted bus camper, after Amanda insists that Lee and the boys enjoy some time out with each other. The family isn’t prepared to face a violent and confrontational Holy Week, given that they are all fun loving, out doors type, good people.

In the meantime, the manager of the race course - Roger Gardner, makes an offer to Lee that he should help in the modernization and renovation of the racetrack - this despite the fact that the Strattons are conflicted over wanting to sell, renovate or leave the race course the way it is. He has a holding in the Stratton Park Racecourse, whose ownership is conflicted – Lee’s mother had married and divorced Lord Stratton’s son, and part of the racecourse stock came to be hers in the settlement after the divorce. The manager wants   Lee to use his shares to keep the race course running. Keith was the race course owner’s son, hyper abusive and violent, he raped Lee’s mother, after which a girl was born, whom the mother abandoned.

Keith’s father sympathized with his daughter-in-law and gives her a stake in Stratton Park; now with the old man dead - the Strattons want nothing more than to throw Lee out like a runt from the litter. The Strattons are a formidable bunch, they are keen to cheat Lee out of his part of the stock, and when the latter attends a shareholders’ meeting with his five older sons, he is assaulted and beaten - a grim warning that he should relinquish his hold over the racecourse. The slimiest of the lot are Lee’s mother’s ex husband - Keith and Marjorie Binsham, Keith’s aunt.

The worst happens when an explosion occurs in the grandstands of Stratton Park; but not before one of the kids sees explosive charges wired through the stands - he alerts Lee, who tries to get the crowd to vacate, everyone, save the nine year old son, leaves in panic, the bombs explode, thankfully, the child is unhurt.

Lee realizes he is now part of a mysterious conspiracy and has to fight to save his family from unknown sources that are threatening the children’s security. Lee is a dependable sort of guy, balanced and secure, physically well built and mentally very strong as well. He hates being dragged into this family feud, and wants nothing more than to solve the problems of Stratton Park and move on.

Readers rate the 33rd novel of Dick Francis as the best. Unlike most of his other books, The Decider is more family oriented, readers will love Lee for his sensitive dad character, they will ache for Amanda and him to be united, believing strongly that there is love after all those years together. A good read if you like family drama, mystery, intrigue as well as a slight romantic angle in your books!

Devil's Waltz (published in 1993) - Authored by Jonathan Kellerman

Munchausen by Proxy Disorder is a mental disorder in which parents or guardians abuse a child in order to gain sympathy for themselves - typically, they ensure the child suffers from a factitious medical affliction, rendering the person in hospice-care sometimes for prolonged periods that may stretch into the child’s youth. The Devil’s Waltz is Kellerman’s unconditional offering to such parents, children and providers of medical care - it is an in depth account of what happens to families who suffer from this Disorder, and how society needs to understand and support people who have been traumatized by it. According to Kellerman, the act of writing the book was ‘altruistic’ and ‘extremely gratifying’.
Perhaps this underlying altruism is what has made The Devil’s Waltz such a sensitive and touching read. For once the reader ignores the loop holes which may have plagued previous works, and concentrate on the greater good the book seeks out to achieve - that of the act of spreading awareness and sensitizing people.
Another gauntlet is thrown Alex Delaware’s way - ''What we've got is a whodunit, howdunit — a did-anyone-do-it. Only this is no Agatha Christie thing... This is a real-life mess.''
21-month old baby Cassie has a host of problems with no apparent cause – she seems fine each time she is admitted , (and that has been countless times over the past fifteen months) - with signs of ‘false positives’, respiratory problems, croup, membrane problems, reasons that could be idiopathic, could be an enzyme disorder - the list of diseases seems to peter off, as Dr. Stephanie Eves resorts to her obvious choice – Alex Delaware, forensic psychologist.




As he walks into General Pediatrics, he learns that the child’s mother has a background in medicine, she was a  respiratory tech. Stephanie, since she scheduled an appointment, learns that Baby Cassie has missed her annual medical examination. When she meets the child, she observes that Cassie is vocally and verbally slow. Four days later, Cassie is back in ER, with 105 temperature, the sickness saga goes on and now includes seizures - all this while, her lab tests etc are normal.
Before we can say Jack Robinson, our man Alex reaches the premise that what they are encountering is MBP, a disorder names after Baron von Munchausen, the famous fabricator of tall stories. Mothers have been known to especially abuse their daughters in MBP, the children suffer pain and torture at the maternal hand. Could Baby Cassie be a sufferer of the same fate, could her older sibling, who died of respiratory disorders, have been a victim as well?
The child is also famously the only grandchild of the hospital’s dictatorial chairman of the board, Charles L. Junior, infamous for his firing and lay-off policies; the latest casualty being the members of the Psych Department. A murder is linked to the hospital, a beefy head of security to contend with - seemingly unrelated events which keep Alex and the affable Milo on their toes till the very end, and the reader is kept on tenterhooks. Jonathan Kellerman, himself a psychologist, has a hands on approach to all matters of the mind, and this book in particular is one of them.