A solid entry into the Sid Halley series of books by Dick Francis. But I'm a bit conflicted over this character and I have a hard time fully embracing him. In Halley's first appearance, "Odds Against", I thought he seemed a bit weak for a leading private detective. Although, it was his first case. Halley appeared to improve and mature in the second book, "Whip Hand". I found him more likable there. In this third outing however, Halley seemed to come off a bit maudlin again, despite the character's aversion to pity. The mystery/plot moved along quickly and held my attention. It's a good thriller but, without giving away any spoilers, I had trouble with a few of Halley's decisions at the end of the book and that prevented me from giving it more than three stars.

Sid Halley returns in another thriller. Who is taking legs off of colts? Could it be another former jockey who is now a revered television host? How many scrapes and bad guys will Sid encounter this time? I like how things shape toward the next book for the characters but always closes each case before the current story ends. Will relations with India blossom? Will our young miscreant become an effective assistant? Will a little girl recover from Leukemia? Stay tuned.

Horsecule Poirot wins again

EDIT: this book is notable for me as capturing a weird early computers/pre-Windows/pre-AOL internet era. At one point Sid has to investigate an office, and what follows is an extended description of looking for floppy disks, plugging in computers, keyboards with buttons like "list files" dial up modems, and what seems like a highly questionable file transfer system. It's fascinating seeing this era captured in how the author felt the need to go into all this physical detail that is also presumably wrong (to transfer files to your computer at home, you just enter your home phone number on the computer you're on). Also some funny nonsense phrases like seeing the whole Internet in someone's eyes

Starting off the second half of the year with a brand new author is always thrilling. When I started reading 'Come to Grief', the first thing that caught my eye was that the detective and the criminal were former jockeys. Horse-riding is something that I find very elegant and a detective who won hearts on a horse seemed right up my alley.
The unique thing about this book was that the criminal was known and it dealt with the aftermath of convicting a person who has a popular stand with the public.
Ellis Quint, jockey, TV anchor, playboy, superman is a persona loved by all generations. In the eyes of the British public, he can do no wrong and he definitely cannot be a psychotic murderer who mutilates horses, his preferred mount.
Sid Halley thinks different. The champion jockey turned private investigator is fresh on the trail of a series of gruesome crimes, where colts belonging to countryside families have been mutilated with no sign of a murderer in sight.
What follows is a race against time, where Sid scrambles from one county to another, diving into grief, media speculation and a newfound infamy, all in a bid to prove that Ellis Quint is not what he seems.
Francis does well to keep the reader hooked to the plot, especially one in which the criminal is known. I especially loved the part where Sid meets a weaver named Patricia Huxford in his search for incriminating evidence. I also love the insights into various professions and a close view on how the media actually works.
What did not work for me was the few clichés, especially one where the detective finds a love interest, since the character was portrayed to be quite a lone wolf. I also did not fully enjoy the ending, even though the emotion was rather profound. I felt it could have had a more impactful ending rather than a simple descent into the titular grief.
The protagonist, Sid Halley was interesting if not totally someone to root for. There were parts where he was a bit tiresome to follow but overall, he was a strong figure. I love his relation with Rachel, a nine year old girl with leukaemia, and even though it did not directly add to the plot, it was a nice breather from all the action
All in all, the novel is really remarkable in a way that it is relevant today. It made me think about how blind one can get in a celebrity's charisma and how our fanaticism can cloud our judgement. I also like how the book dealt with crimes against animals. It is not a topic written about very often and I think it did make the book stand out.

After an almost 20-year hiatus, Dick Francis returns to his favorite character Sid Halley in "Come to Grief." Like the other Sid Halley stories, this one is dark and edgy even for a Dick Francis book, and like the other novels from the early 1990s, it features a particularly sadistic and disturbed villain.

This time Sid Halley is called into action to find out who has been mutilating ponies and yearlings (like I said, sadistic and disturbed). The answer plunges Sid into some deep soul-searching, as he recognizes his affinity for the villain, and once again has to face his worst fear, which is the loss of his one good hand.

"Come to Grief" is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but it is, in my opinion, one of Francis's stronger works. Throughout his career he vacillated between providing light escapist entertainment and powerful meditations on the human condition, particularly the effects of pain and fear, of which he is the consummate master. With most authors I have the impression (perhaps unfair) that they have never really experienced true pain and fear, and can only describe it through cliches or improbably over-the-top events. Francis, however, knew, or at least knew exactly how to describe, just how terrible and debilitating even moderate amounts of pain and fear can be, and the agony and triumph of overcoming even small, personal hurdles. None of the bad guys in "Come to Grief" are trying to take over the world--although one thinks he is--and in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter whether Sid succeeds or fails, any more than it matters in the grand scheme of things whether the child cancer patient whom Sid is trying to help is cured or not, but for the characters it is literally a matter of life and death, and Francis places the reader squarely in their heads and causes the reader to care just as much as they do.

His artist characters--in "Smokescreen," "In the Frame," and "To the Hilt," for example--struggle with the uneasy tension between their impulse to take the easy route and provide light entertainment, and the tendency for deeper things to come out of their art against their will, and one can't help but suspect that the same was true for Francis himself. In "Come to Grief" the darkness and depth definitely predominates, making it a more emotionally challenging read (the plot and language are as engaging as ever) than some of his other works, but also proving why Francis was more than just a mercenary purveyor of cheap thrills, and had at least one foot in the world of Literature with a Capital L.

I liked it very much. It's a really long one for Francis, but the story is quite entertaining and complex so far. It took a very good and physically strong and smart sleuth to solve this one, and the fact that Ellis and Sid have been long term friends makes it that much more complex. To see the soul of two very similar but very different issues has been an interesting part of this read. They know each other so well, they know what will and what won't break each other. Was a thought provoking book that I would recommend.

Another great one for DF

A cracking read full of pacey twists and turns. I just love Sid Halley - what a fabulous detective. Ex jockey with a jockey's stoicism when injured and a tenacious mindset even when he knows he's going to come off badly. I read a lot of Dick Francis books in my teens and early 20s and marvel at the world of horse racing. They have stood the test of time well - just as enjoyable today.

Another tense and fast moving story from Dick Francis. This was written 40 years ago, when there were no mobile phones and life was different, but this adds to the story. It focuses on some unknown person who was cutting off the front hoof of innocent, trusting horses, meaning they had to be put down. At first I struggled with the thought of this happening, but about 70% of the story focused on finding who had done this. I love the Sid Halley books and this one had him facing ridicule and worse, for accusing an ex jockey, who had become a big TV star and had once been Sid’s friend. Sid was so disgusted at the utter cruelty, that he did all he could to prove the guilt of the TV star, facing cruelty at the hands of the star. Right at the end, there was a clever twist that I didn’t see coming. An exciting story - a real page turner.

I love Dick Francis books and tales of the racing world and thoroughly enjoyed this one too.

A real blast from the past. The fraternal bookshelves were crammed with many of Francis' horse-racing themed thrillers and many were read when he was away at college. This, one of the later outings of Sid Halley, National Hunt jockey turned private investigator is, like most of its ilk, silly, far-fetched and great fun, although, as it is written in the early 90s, rather dated. It is, also, rather nasty, involving the deliberate maiming and mutilation of horses (echoing real life cases and that of the Arthur and George novel by Julian Barnes). Halley has been involved in the case of a pony whose owner just happens to be a terminally ill child and to his chagrin has discovered the suspect is a former friend and media celebrity.
Much of the narrative is told in flashback which can be confusing at times, and it is much more of a why done it rather than a whodunnit.

Engaging and eloquent prose as always from Francis, but disappointingly lacking in his usual heart-gripping tension. Don't make this your introduction to Francis, he has much better stuff elsewhere. By revealing the culprit from the outset, he removed the core appeal of his stories: the nearly unbreakable addiction of "I NEED to know what happens next... Oh dear how did it get to be 2 AM?" Additionally, the "oh my god is this protagonist going to survive?" factor is erased from the first 60% of the book because all those events already happened. Not to rag on Francis, he is one of my favorite authors, but he has so many other books one could read.