Come to Grief
Putnam, 1995 ยท Edgar Award, Best Novel
Characters
- Sid Halley
- 34, private investigator
- Davis Tatum
- senior lawyer
- Ginnie Quint
- Ellis's mom
- Rear Admiral Charles Roland
- Jenny's father
- Ellis Quint
- 38, talk show host, once champion amateur jump jockey
- Linda Ferns
- Rachel's mom
- Rachel Ferns
- 9 years old, has leukemia
- Gordon Quint
- Ellis's dad
- Jenny
- Sid's ex-wife (now Lady Wingham)
- Betty Bracken
- her colt was a victim :(
- Bill Ruskin
- vet
- India Cathart
- columnist for The Pump
- Kevin Mills
- chief reporter for The Pump
- Sir Anthony Wingham
- Jenny's new husband
- Mrs. Cross
- Charles's housekeeper
- Jonathan
- 15, Betty Bracken's nephew
- Archie Kirk
- Betty's brother, civil servant and magistrate for the government
- Ted James
- sold Land-Rover to Bill Ruskin
- Roger Brook
- salesman for English Sporting Motors
- Detective Inspector Norman Picton
- Thames Valley Police
- Miss Richardson
- joint owner of the Windward Stud Farm
- Mrs. Bethany
- joint owner of the Windward Stud Farm
- George Godbar
- editor of The Pump
- Lord Verney Tilepit
- 42, a director of Topline Foods, proprietor by inheritance of The Pump
- Owen Cliff Yorkshire
- CEO of Topline Foods
- Saul Marcus
- weaver
- Patricia Huxford
- weaver (gold dress!)
- Marsha Rowse
- works for Topline Foods in Customer Relations
- Mrs. Dove
- office manager at Topline Foods
- Willy Parrott
- production manager at Topline Foods
- Nick Gross
- works for Intramind Imaging
Favorite passages
Review of Come to Grief I looked at the space where a left hand had once been, and I looked at the strong whole right hand that held a glass, and I acknowledged that often, both waking as well as sleeping, I felt, and could not repress, stabs of savage, petrifying fear that one day it would indeed be both. The trick was not to let the fear show, nor to let it conquer, nor rule, my life. The Sid Halley books are: Odds Against , Whip Hand , and Come to Grief.
written by Doug Mattox , Professor, Ceramic Engineering, University of Missouri-Rolla Sid Halley is back and beset by the discovery of a very dark side in a life-long friend and kindred spirit. As if a part of himself were dying, he tenaciously accumulates essential evidence while his public reputation and physical body are being shredded. The determination to do what's right and to do what's wrong are equally strong themes in this book. Francis' special insight into adolesence is once again a subplot. Sid involuntarily becomes vulnerable to a new character who appears to have staying power. Come to Grief is such an emotional book! A quote that really typifies Sid Halley's approach to life:
Chosen by members of the reading group in the late 1990s. From Come to Grief by Dick Francis.
The group read it
We discussed Come to Grief on June 15, 1998 and again during our "Month of Sid," December 1998.
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.