E.P.'s Reviews > Hot Money

"I intensely disliked my father's fifth wife, but not to the point of murder."

So begins "Hot Money," Francis's 1987 masterpiece of homicidal family drama. Malcolm Pembroke is a filthy-rich gold broker and serial husband with a string of wives and children surrounding him. When someone murders his latest wife by suffocating her in her own potting soil, he turns to his estranged son Ian for protection and help.

Ian, while interesting enough, is a fairly innocuous hero; the true focus of the novel are the poisonous relationships radiating out from Malcolm, who can't seem to stop stirring up drama between those closest to him. In order to solve the mystery, Ian has to go back to the resentments of childhood and study the psychologies of all his half-siblings, which is where a large part of the charm of the book comes in. In "Hot Money," Francis creates not so much a charismatic hero as a charismatic family, one you want to keep finding out more about--and one with a terrible secret to hide.

"Hot Money" was written right as Francis was entering into the height of his powers, and is superbly paced and plotted. There's nothing earth-shaking about it, exactly, but it holds up well to repeated reading, and is guaranteed to provide plenty of pleasure to Francis fans or anyone who enjoys a good mystery.