Come to Grief

by Dick Francis

1996

Status

Available

Publication

Jove (1996), Edition: Reissue, 384 pages

Description

Fiction. Mystery. HTML: When ex-jockey Sid Halley becomes convinced that one of his closest friends�??and one of the racing world's most beloved figures�??is behind a series of shockingly violent acts, he faces the most troubling case of his career

User reviews

LibraryThing member tripleblessings

Sid Halley #3, the ex-champion jockey turned investigator, uncovers a case of cruelty to ponies in which the evidence points to an old friend, a beloved public figure. This time the detection story is told in flashback, while awaiting trial. Very sympathetic hero and victims, remarkable villain. I

enjoy re-reading the Sid Halley series every couple of years.

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LibraryThing member library_girl27

This is my favorite Sid Halley book. It's really sad since Sid discovers that a friend and popular media man is behind a string of grotesque crimes and Sid gets brutalized in the media for claiming it was him.

LibraryThing member reannon

Sid Halley is a series character for Dick Francis. He is a former jocky who lost a hand and can no longer race. So he has taken up investigation to earn a living. In this case, Halley finds out and has to prove that someone he considers a dear friend, one of the most popular men in England, is

responsible for some hideous crimes. The characterization is absolutely outstanding, and the plot is good as well.

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LibraryThing member Risa15

A mystery featuring Sid Halley, a former jockey who after an accident that ended his racing career became a private detective. He is asked to find out who mutilated a number of ponies and discovers that the culprit is a well liked former jockey, a friend. Ellis Quint then attempts to discredit

Halley who is maligned by several newspapers.

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LibraryThing member LA12Hernandez

A very good book I find hard to forget.

LibraryThing member SalemAthenaeum

When ex-jockey Sid Halley becomes convinced that one of his closest friends--and one of the racing world's most beloved figures--is behind a series of shockingly violent acts, he faces the most troubling case of his career.

LibraryThing member benfulton

This book is a solid entry in the standard Francis formula, which involves jockeys with mysterious, highly placed enemies, racing grounds and stables, physical abuse, and a love interest. The writing is solid as always; a good way to spend a few hours. Although this is only the third in the Sid

Halley series, the books that I've read by Francis always have the same main character. Sometimes his name changes is all.

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LibraryThing member hailelib

This mystery held up pretty well as a reread although I did remember who was maiming the horses. However it had been long enough since i read Come to Grief previously that the why and the details were like reading a new book. Sid Halley is the investigator and while he isn't my favorite Francis

hero this is, for me, the best of the books featuring him. The novel begins with the upcoming trial of Ellis Quint and the suicide of Quint's mother. We learn from Halley how he came to believe in Quint's guilt and then we begin to learn along with Sid just what else is going on behind the scenes. Overall, the story follows the standard Francis plot so his fans will enjoy the book, especially those who have read Whip Hand and Odds Against.

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LibraryThing member LCB1016

Dick Francis is one of my favorite authors. I have found all of his novels to be great stories, suspenseful, and fast reads. There are always characters you love and others not so much. The main character has been developed across multiple novels so he is familiar and interesting. The setting of

horse racing and the horse racing industry in England has been very informative and, I assume, very close to the truth given the author's background.

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LibraryThing member phyllis2779

Dick Francis was one of my favorite mystery writers and this one, about Sid Halley, is excellent. There was something about the books featuring Sid Halley that really resonated with me. I wouldn't mooch this one out except I have to clear out a lot of books before we move.

LibraryThing member pmarshall

[Come to Grief], [[Dick Francis]]
I haven’t reread this title often because I don’t like the idea of someone cutting through the fetlock of a young colt to hear the ‘scrunch’ and feel the power. But the book is really about friendship and the loss of it, the fatal illness of a child, the

disbelief of the public that their hero could do this terrible, horrible act. It is about the many faces of grief, for the living and the dead, human and horse.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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LibraryThing member stephanie_M

It seems odd to me that Dick Francis, who normally sticks to standalones, has won two of his three Edgars for Best Novel with books in his all-too-brief Sid Halley series. Come to Grief is the last of them, an unusually-structured book which, while losing none of the suspense Francis excels at,

also adds new depth to the character of steeplechase-jockey-turned-private-eye Halley.

I would have loved this novel to be longer. I would have adored there to be much more Sid Halley novels. There are not. I spent the entirety of this novel very happy for a new Francis read, while very sad that my 'new Francis reads' were dwindling ever smaller.

From page one we know the perpetrator. Suspense depends on unfolding details tantalizingly, slowly - questioning motivation why, revelation of how discovered, and resenting harsh treatment of the hero. If I hate the cruel sadistic deed, the frustration and denial knowing who, the nightmares..... why read on? Because Francis is a genius at his craft, that's why. And I always, literally jump at the chance to read a Dick Francis novel I have not read yet.

Dick Francis compels my curiosity, draws me into strange new worlds. The world of horses, racing, and jockeys is completely foreign to me, but Francis, as usual, makes it all very accessible, likeable, and new, while revisiting this same world again. The character travels through most of Britain, high and low, to find his answers, and this is like a mini-vacation to me. Francis really knows how to write a novel that while straddling new technological advancements, they still retain the 1950's style of living/writing/being. A man's world of physicality, where women are peripheral criers, or hard-edged and cold-seeming, objects of beauty & admiration, and men willingly break and bloody bodies in fights. Stories told in the first person enable us to identify with the protagonist, who has physical and moral courage, then needs to demonstrate those qualities. But Halley gets little praise, as usual. No accolades.

As the book opens, a trial is about to begin -- the trial of Halley's longtime friend and fellow jockey Ellis Quint, now a TV presenter, for a series of horrifying and unusual crimes. Sid Halley is one of the chief witnesses for the prosecution. In the rest of the book, we see how Halley reached his conclusions, and we learn along with him why there is more to the story than he at first realized.

Come to Grief has several elements that suggest Francis may have planned to continue the series with some new twists and some new continuing characters, but he has passed on sadly, and is no longer able to do so. (I sincerely hope it's not because the main character had a prosthetic arm, but who knows?)

4 stars. Highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member Nodosaurus

Sid Halley, ex-jockey turned detective, returns in a new book. Someone is cutting of the off-hand leg of yearlings, just below the fetlock joint. When the person injures the horse of a terminally ill child, it becomes more personal. A few clues point to a famous jockey, loved by many, friend to

Halley, and who wasn't present, the mystery deepens and the the political cost to Sid is high.

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LibraryThing member nordie

This book brings the return of narrator Sid Halley (Odds Against; Whip Hand) as the one-handed PI and ex-jockey takes on a case of multiple mutilations of thoroughbreds; unnervingly, the amputation of the animals' front left hooves mirrors Sid's own injury. The investigator soon realizes that the

man behind the crimes is his old friend Ellis Quint, ex-gentleman jockey and now a beloved TV host. Sick at heart, Sid builds a strong case; but, when Quint is charged, British law bars any public discussion of the case, rendering Sid mute at the huge public backlash against him. Particularly vicious and unrelenting is The Pump, a garish tabloid. When another mutilation occurs and Ellis has a seemingly unbreakable alibi, Sid finds some odd connections between a business tycoon, The Pump's noble owner and Ellis. Finally, the honourable, brave and thoroughly decent Sid faces his worst nightmare - the loss of his good hand - while doing what he must.

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