Thirty-four-year-old bookmaker Ned Talbot had been raised by his grandparents, who told him that his parents had been killed in a car accident when he was a baby.  On the first day of Royal Ascot, Ned is confronted by a man who claims to be his father.  Less than an hour later, his newly found father is fatally stabbed by an assailant in the Ascot parking lot. Later the police confirm that DNA testing proves the man actually was his father, but it also shows that he was wanted for the murder of his wife thirty years ago.

Ned sets out to learn the reason for his father's murder and also to learn the truth behind the murder of his mother.  The search involves him in insurance frauds and horse substitution.  Besides the search into his father's past, Ned is also concerned with the fragile health of his wife Sophie, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and with the mysterious accidents involving telephone communications which threaten to have a negative effect on the betting.

Even Money is less about horse racing and more about one of its satellites...horse betting.  A copy of "Bookmaker's Odds as Used on British Racetracks" is included.  Not being a betting person, it is quite incomprehensible to me.  Much of the dialogue is about betting, as is expected with the theme of the book.  That I also did not understand. However, the system of betting and English bookmaking is thoroughly explained. The love between Ned and Sophie is touching, with bipolar disorder examined in detail.

The key elements of every Francis book have been the horse racing milieu; a damaged hero usually in his 30's with various moral dilemmas (in this case, Sophie's physical health); easy first person narration; at least one scene of brutal violence (near fatal car pursuit); presentation of a lot of information about some other subject (bipolar disorder); and a happy ending.  All these elements are included in Even Money but I felt that the story lacked depth and was not up to Dick Francis' standards.