Come to Grief

Rating:
Summary: Dick Francis shades light on jockeys no longer in the game.
Review: Dick Francis proves it takes one to catch one. When an ex-jockey turned detective turns up the heat in an investigation into the maiming of prize horses. Is he to close to the subject to nap the abuser or not? Read Francis and find out

Rating:
Summary: "Come to Grief" delivers
Review: Dick Francis' "Come to Grief" succeeds in pulling off the compelling, turn the page urge that lasts until the last page. That is the gold standard for books, and Mr.Francis has mastered that standard. The plot is lurid, yet plausible. Sid Halley is appropriately vulnerable as both a target and a sleuth. Most folks will not come to grief with this book.

Rating:
Summary: Ex-jockey turned PI Sid Halley bravely faces demons & ghosts
Review: Francis addicts will cheer on "friend" Sid Halley as he faces old ghosts (first wife), old demons (as in WHIP HAND), and new demons (his friend & that of a little girl's fatal disease). The best part of any Dick Francis book are his characters. You always LIKE them. The action keeps you turning the pages, but the characters have you on their side cheering for them. COME TO GRIEF is no different. There are mixed feelings at the end of every Dick Francis book: good, the character is OK; and nuts, now the character is gone away because the book is finished. It has been nice to welcome back Sid Halley for the third time.

Rating:
Summary: Ex-jockey turned PI Sid Halley bravely faces demons & ghosts
Review: Francis addicts will cheer on "friend" Sid Halley as he faces old ghosts (first wife), old demons (as in WHIP HAND), and new demons (his friend & that of a little girl's fatal disease). The best part of any Dick Francis book are his characters. You always LIKE them. The action keeps you turning the pages, but the characters have you on their side cheering for them. COME TO GRIEF is no different. There are mixed feelings at the end of every Dick Francis book: good, the character is OK; and nuts, now the character is gone away because the book is finished. It has been nice to welcome back Sid Halley for the third time.

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing Edgar winner
Review: Given that for virtually every book one can purchase, there are at least a dozen excerpts from reviews somewhere inside stating "never better" and "top of form," one needs other avenues to discern which books are indeed a given author's best. Normally for crime novels the Edgar (and other) Awards is a good reference point. With this one, though, one has to wonder what happened. Sid Halley, the star of two previous first-rate novels, is here not only a saint, a giant among men, but in the second half of the book, is relentlessly referred to as such by the other characters, for no reason having to do with the story. There is little mystery; instead the structure follows the prove-he-did-it format. In addition, the story is driven forward by one wild, implausible mistake made by the culprit, and a fight (also unnecessary) in which Halley, effectively zero-armed, uses judo to defeat a couple security guards. I have never been the least bit disappointed in an Edgar-winner before now, but this one is a head-scratcher. Perhaps Francis was very ill at the time. Read Whip Hand and call it a day for Halley.

Rating:
Summary: Sick!
Review: I didn't like this one so much. I've read & enjoyed just about everything else Dick Francis has written. This one, however, was based on a sick idea (cutting off horses' feet - how disgusting), and I never did figure out what was the point of doing it.

Rating:
Summary: Naaaahhhhhh......Rating: 2
Review: I didn't like this one too much. Especially because he got away in the end

Rating:
Summary: An outstanding thriller - a marathon through hell
Review: I felt exhausted after reading this book, in which nothing is as it should be: the hero is a vulnerable disabled jockey, his friend, a well-known TV-star, is a horse mutilating psycho, the press ruins the reputation of the really good guy, a sweet little girl has to struggle against leukemia and has nearly lost. Dick Francis does not spare his detective and the readers some of the worst feelings a human being can go through, but Sid Halley admits all these, and bravely goes on. In the end he wins without triumph. A great book - tense thriller and striking lesson on human nature.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing and well-written
Review: I started out cynical, considering the fact that this book is a MWA award winner. Slowly, but surely this book of Francis proves to be a real page-turner. The only grievance is that the protagonist is very unreal--almost a reincarnation of Gandhi in magnanimousness; he also fights back to win, almost always.

Rating:
Summary: Francis' Deepest Character rides again
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed "Come to Grief," as I enjoyed "Whip Hand," the second of Francis' three Sid Haley novels. Insomuch as all of Francis' main characters are essentially the same person, Sid Haley fits his bill, but - perhaps by simple virtue of being ressurected through three novels now - Haley is a much deeper, more real person than some of the others. Francis really threw himself into writing Haley, exploring his motivations, fears, bravery, and tenaciousness to a far greater extent than his typical character, and you end up caring about the outcome quite a lot. I listened to this book (narrated by Simon Preebles) simultaneously to reading "Hot Money," and there's really no comparison in quality. "Hot Money" is average, "Come to Grief" is well above the norm.
The other reviewers' comments about this being a darker, more disturbing book than Francis' average are all true, of course, but in my opinion this improves the read.