Bonecrack
Harper, 1971
Characters
- Neil Griffon
- 34, opened his own antique shop when he was 17, sold it when it was a successful chain of 11 stores, then worked for Arletti, Inc. advising businesses in trouble
- Carlo, Cal
- "rubber masks," work for Enso Rivera
- Tommy Hoylake
- second-best jockey in Britain
- Alessandro Rivera
- 18, wants to be Champion Jockey and ride Archangel in the Derby
- Etty Craig
- head lad at Rowley Lodge
- Dainsee
- vet
- Robinson
- old secretary at Rowley Lodge, retired
- Margaret
- secretary at Rowley Lodge
- John Bredon
- recently retired trainer
- Russell Arletti
- Arletti, Inc., advises businesses in trouble
- Enso Rivera
- Alessandro's father, "receiver of stolen property" and runs a "supposedly legitimate busines as a dealer in watches"
- Gillie
- 36, Neil's roommate and lover
- Neil's dad
- 67, trainer
- Jeremy
- Gillie's ex-husband
- Jennifer
- Gillie's daugher, killed at 8 years old by a boy on a motorcycle
- Vic Young
- traveling head lad for Rowley Lodge
Favorite passages
My choice for favorite quote:
Fathers, it seemed to me, could train, feed, or warp their young plants, but they couldn't affect their basic nature. They might produce a stunted oak or a luxuriant weed, but oak and weed were inborn qualities, which would prevail in the end.
Chosen by members of the reading group in the late 1990s. From Bonecrack by Dick Francis.
The group read it
We discussed discussed Bonecrack on June 16, 1997.
This page was first written for the reading group's original site in the late 1990s and was lost when AOL Hometown closed. It has been recovered from the Internet Archive.