Date first published	1995
ISBN Number	0 7181 37535 1
Page Count	179
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

Sid Halley, the ex-champion jockey turned investigator who appears in Odds Against and Whip Hand is back. In Come To Grief he faces new dilemmas, new dangers, new deeply demanding decisions.

As the book opens Sid Halley has uncovered an obnoxious crime committed by a friend whom he - and everyone else - has held in affection bordering on love.

On the morning set for the opening of the friend's trial, at which Sid is due to be called as a witness, other people's miseries explode and send him spinning into pulverising days of hard , rational detection and heart searching torments.

Troubled, courageous and unwilling to admit defeat, for Sid Halley it is business as usual.

Review

Unlike a lot of the Dick Francis characters, who get dragged into events more by accident than design, you know that the main character goes out of his way looking for trouble.

The story starts at an unusual point, where the crime and the criminal are known, although not yet convicted, and we have a in effect a flashback to see how the outcome has been achieved, and then we explode into the present, as the pace increases to prove the felon innocent.

However this all goes horribly wrong when the instruments of the unspeakable deed (and it is really horrible) are found, but with incrimanating evidence that puts things back to square one. Meanwhile a media campaign starts to try and discredit Sid, which fans will know is like waving a red rag to a bull!

There is also a side story regarding a sick child, and the usual race to find the answers and stop the wrongdoer in his tracks.

This is quite a short story, but told at a cracking pace, without the need to fully describe Sid Halley, and his past, although it is breifly recapped at one point. If you want to read this story, you should read the first two stories first, so that you understand the Nature of Sid, and his determination to win.

Another excellent story, not much humour, plenty of horror, and a final just come uppance for the perpertrator!

Sid Halley also appears in Odds against, Whip Hand, and Under Orders

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