SOLVED. Dick Francis does sort of future fiction [s]

[Grey]

As far as I remember, this Dick Francis novel had someone imprisoned in the early 1980s (when he wrote the novel) and released in the later 1980s (which he was forecasting ahead to). The crux of the story was about a computer file that held information about the crime the person imprisoned had not actually been guilty of. Because it was sort of future fiction, Dick Francis had taken the computer scene of the early 1980s and forecast what it would be like by the 1980s, in a perfectly logical way, just one that did not in fact come to pass.

[Sue]

I've got all Dick Francis' books, and I've certainly never encountered this storyline. All his books are connected in some way with horse-racing.

[Grey]

Yeah it was a horse racing crime. As far as I can recall, the guy had been sentenced for it but on his release was determined to prove his innocence of it. A caravan of sorts was important to the story. If you weren't really into computers in the 1980s you probably wouldn't release that the bits set after his release don't actually match the reality of computing ten years later. It was all to do with getting the right computer, the right language etc, as if the original file was one created on a Jupiter Ace and ten years later only computers descended from it could read it, whereas of course by the late 1980s computing languages were heading towards consolidation rather than having had the extreme division set into stone.

[HJ]

Grey wrote: "Yeah it was a horse racing crime. As far as I can recall, the guy had been sentenced for it but on his release was determined to prove his innocence of it. A caravan of sorts was important to the s..."

I have also read every Dick Francis book, and this is not one of them. There was a Dick Francis book which dealt with very early computing, and that was
Twice Shy. However, there was nothing in that book about someone being sentenced or "a computer file that held information about the crime the person imprisoned had not actually been guilty of". The computer program in Twice Shy was about betting; the programmer had put in all the form data and was using it to predict winners.

There are a number of people who write books similar to those by Dick Francis. I wonder if the one you're thinking of was by one of them? For example, John Francome?

[Grey]

Actually that does look like it. Reading the first review, it says

"The computerized horse racing handicapping program is an interesting part of the story; which takes place in the early days of personal computers. The usefulness and longevity of the program (spanning 14 years) as a predictor of a relatively high percentage of race winners underscores the principle that the worth of a computer is mostly a function of the software that runs on it. "

which seems to match what I meant.

I will order it on Amazon and let you know whether it IS what I remember.

Thanks

[Grey]

Another review says

"It was published in 1982, a fact very evident because the plot involves a computer program to help people bet at the horse races, in the days before people had PC's. The program had been copied on to cassette tapes, which come into the possession of Jonathan Derry, a high school physics teacher. When the friend who gave him the tapes for safe keeping is killed in an explosion, Derry becomes suspicious, and even more so when two thugs come to his home and threaten him if he does not hand over the tapes. The first half of the book is Jonathan's account as he tries to outwit the thugs and solve the mystery of why these tapes are so important. Jonathan’s younger brother William tells the second half some years later, when one of the thugs has been released from jail and is still on the trail of the tapes. "

so my memory probably mixed up whether it was the main character or a villain who got released

[HJ]

I hope it is this book and you've found what you were looking for! I loved the detail of the old system of cassette tapes for computer programs etc. - so dated now.

I think the reason that Sue and I were so sure that what you were describing wasn't a Dick Francis book was your reference to its being "sort of future fiction". He just didn't do that, and I think you'll see that the only element of forecasting in this book is the prediction of likely winners of horse races.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Grey wrote: "I will order it on Amazon and let you know whether it IS what I remember."

Grey, was that your book?

[Grey]

Yes, but it was quite intriguing to realise that Dick Francis updated the book in a later edition, so that the parts that were future computing at the time he wrote it, were now replaced by more familiar IBM-compatibles. In order to read the book I remember reading, you need to get the first edition of 'Twice Shy', then you will see Dick Francis setting the second half of the book in what, at the time he wrote it, was the future.

Regards

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Okay, then I have shelved the 1981 edition for complete accuracy. (The most popular edition is the one that appears at the top of the thread, however.)