Come to Grief - By Dick Francis - Released in 1995

John Sidney Halley or Sid Halley makes his last appearance after three books, in Come To Grief (other books - Odds Against, Whip in Hand, Under Orders). A former jockey turned PI, he seems physically unassuming, and that he has a prosthetic hand is something that no one would ever notice.

It is this façade that manages to keep under wraps the brilliant mind he has for espionage, computer hacking, even martial arts - he is never found wanting in danger. But there is a fun side to him as well - like the gambling machine he keeps in his room; he is sensitive as well, gifting a poor cancer-ridden child a fish to keep her company.

Working with horses since he was fifteen, he won championships, however he also tragically crippled his left hand - it was further damaged by a villainous character, and resulted in its amputation. Although he never seems to grudge the accident openly, he does feel bitter within about his loss.

Sid’s friendship with Ellis Quint, also a former jockey, is his solace. Ellis is now a well known chat show host with a huge fan following. On the other hand, he also befriends Rachel, who is suffering from leukemia. She has lost her thorough-bred Silverboy, who was mercilessly mutilated - this gives the child nightmares.


Unbeknownst to Sid, Ellis has a dirty secret; he enjoys torturing and mutilating animals, as a cover up, it is Quint himself who sheds light on these horrific acts, making it known that the killings happen around the full moon. The animals’ front left hooves are amputated, repeatedly on a full moon, for months together - Sid bizarrely mirrors this with loss of his own  left hand.

Sid Halley steps in, and the facts are horrifying, he must implicate his best friend in this crime - and as a result, the media, police and community are all up in arms against Halley, given Quint’s popularity. He must quell his own doubts about the kind of man Ellis is, the fact that the two are like brothers and best of friends - he has an uphill task convincing even himself of his friend’s crime! The only thing that keeps him going is his friendship for Rachel and the many owners whose blameless horses have borne the brunt of sheer cruelty.

As a result of all the bloodshed, Sid has nightmares about his ghost limb, and the hand he has left. Despite attempts made on his life, he fights to bring the perpetrator to justice. The book opens with a court scene, where the trial of Ellis Quint is about to begin. The chief witness for prosecution is Sid, testifying against his friend. All the events are in flashback.

Sid has a strong case built up against Quint, but the law prevents him from discussing the case with the media or in public, since it is sub judice. Taking advantage of his silence, yellow journalism has a field day, especially vicious in its treatment is a tabloid called The Pump. Sid traces its vitriolic outburst against him, back to a relationship between Ellis and tabloid’s owner, a business tycoon. And then there is a horrific scene where Sid is caught and in danger of being killed.

The novel won an Edgar  and Silver Dagger for Francis, a must read, though best avoided by adolescents!

Anansi Boys - A book by Neil Gaiman - Published in 2005

“The Dreamer awakes

The shadow goes by

The tale I have told you,

That tale is a lie.

But listen to me,

Bright maiden, proud youth

The tale is a lie;

What it tells is the truth.” ― Traditional folktale ending

“ANANSI”- the spider…miniscule, tiny, deadly. The Anansi (Nanzi, for short, and in our story-Nancy) lives in Florida, father to Fat Charlie, his accountant son, who craves the freedom to step out of his father’s shadow, maintaining the physical distance by living in South London.

Nancy Sr. (whom we last met in American Boys) is quite the ladies man, and whilst charming buxom members of the fairer sex one evening in a karaoke bar - he comes to a sticky end. 

Nancy Jr. - Fat Charlie travels to Florida to dispense with his filial duties, and is told by Mrs. Callyanne Higgler, a family friend that late Nancy Sr. was actually the reincarnation of the West African spider god Anansi. And before Charlie can start to believe he maybe endowed with some of the magical qualities his father had- the lady dampens his spirits and tells him of his spider-brother-Spider. In a drunken stupor, Charlie whispers to a lil’ arachnid he’d love a visit from his sibling.

In the morning Spider pays a visit, stepping in and out through an old picture. The swashbuckling, suave sibling is saddened and shocked to hear of their father’s demise. That evening, the two brothers drown their sorrows in a pub, and the next morning, as Charlie misses work, nursing a hangover, Spider appears in his guise at work. Here he pushes back the rug to see the dirt beneath it; the Messrs. Graham Coat Agency has been embezzling funds galore. He also discovers his brother’s lovely fiancée Rose Noah.
Performing his duties to the T, Spider sheds light on the financial irregularities at the Agency, and in order to get him out of the way, a fat cheque and holiday are planned. Off course this is a case of mistaken identity, doppelgänger gone bad. Fed up, Charlie travels once more to Orlando, to seek Mrs. Higgler’s help - she leads him to her friend, who, with some abracadabra-meets-bibbity-babbity-boo black magic, gets him to travel back in time - where he confronts creatures unwilling to help him, thanks to Nancy Sr. being such a cad and what not.
Finally, Bird Woman agrees to help in exchange for the Anansi bloodline. On the other hand, Maeve Livingstone, a harassed client of the Agency confronts Grahame with regard to her late husband’s swindled royalties, threatening to sue him. The wily serpent agrees to return the money, and as the poor woman is about to leave - he kills her mercilessly, hiding the body in a closet. The woman haunts the Agency, and refuses to go into the afterlife unless she is able to get her hands on Grahame Coats. She even meets the ghost of Anansi, who teaches her to use cleverness and skill instead of strength, to get what she wants.
Charlie is arrested for fraudulent financial practices and Spider tells the truth about himself - she is inconsolable and unforgiving. She sails away on a cruise with her mother, when she chances upon Grahame, and the pair is kidnapped by him, imprisoned in his basement. Spider is now aware that the constant attacks on his person have something to do with Charlie - he spirits him out in guise of his attorney Mr.Merryman, to Skopsie, where they reach the conclusion that they both stand to lose if the Anansi bloodline is compromised.
Charlie is freed from prison, and he helps recover Maeve’s body; he seeks Mrs. Higgler’s help to solve his travails, but is directed to Mrs. Dunwiddy who explains how she hexed him, that Spider and Charlie are two sides of the same coin. This charges Charlie to seek his ‘other half’, restores his tongue and the bloodline. However, Grahame is taken over by the fearsome Tiger, who plots to kill Rosie, thus getting even with Spider. But Anansi and Maeve get the better of him, and he is eliminated in the real world.
Charlie, heady with success, still at the beginning of Time, with the aid of Spider, shuts Grahame Coats and Tiger in a cave, sealing their fates. Coats  is now renamed “Stoats”, in keeping with his weasel - like nature. Charlie relinquishes all emotional ties with Rose, and she marries Spider - they have no children, an act of rebellion to antagonize his mother-in-law; Charlie finds a soul mate in Daisy Day, a policewoman he met at the pub, they have a son Marcus. Meanwhile, old Anansi looks on from beyond with approval at his offspring.
Neil Gaiman’s pen successfully blends fantasy with myriad shades of reality, lending an air of veracity. The Author has to his credit over twenty fantasy novels and short stories. He is known for his connotative and indirect approach in writing, most of his works are monomyths, where the hero is transported from this world to the next, where he, dauntless and unafraid, battles forces beyond his control.
The Book won the Locus, Mythopoeic, YALSA ALEX, and British Fantasy Awards in 2006. It has also been adapted as a radio play for the BBC World Service.

Book - American Gods (an award winning book by Neil Gaiman) - Published in 2001

‘So God created man in His own image’…that gods and humans dwell together - is the theme of Gaiman’s 2001 Hugo and Nebula  Award winning novel American Gods. But as the ages progress, faith diminished, and although they’re around, our unbelief clouds our vision, and they remain as yet, unseen. The tale begins with Shadow Moon being freed from prison, where he spent three years with Low Key Lyesmith, his fellow prisoner. His plans of spending a cushy life with Laura, since his pal Robbie Burton had promised him a job at his gym; but Fate had other plans, and a summon to the warden’s office throws him into an abyss - his wife and best friend are killed in an accident.
He takes up an offer to be bodyguard for one Mr. Wednesday (an incarnation of the Norse god Odin)- a man who mysteriously knows more about Shadow than he had ever told anyone. Mr. Wednesday is raising an army – finding humans who have god-like qualities, Americans who may be manifestations of Norse gods - to wage war against the modern demons that have taken over the world, such as the Internet and technological advances in the fields of media and transport. Shadow meets many such gods – Mr. Nancy (Anansi) and Mad Sweeney, the latter gifts him a gold coin that brings back Laura as a revenant.




As they try to unite the forces of the Old Gods from Chicago, Illinois and Madison, Wisconsin, they are met with reluctance and lack of enthusiasm; just about ten of them agree to fight for the cause. Shadow meets the guardian goddesses - Zorya and the dark god - Czernobog, who refuses to help Odin. The ‘New Gods’ take advantage of this disparity and abduct Shadow, who is rescued by Laura.
Odin hides Shadow in a funeral parlor with Egyptian gods and later at Lakeside - a town that remains whilst others around it perish and turn into ghost towns, however, the children of the town seem to disappear, too many, too often. However, since they travel so much, he cannot really find out more, this added to the fact that he is still being chased by the minions of the New Gods, who blame him for the death of one of their own (actually killed by Laura).
Sadly, Mr. Wednesday is killed and Shadow follows him into the afterlife, himself dying. Whilst in strange purgatory, Shadow learns he is Wednesday’s son. Meanwhile Low Key Lyesmith, his cellmate, is actually a player in this whole gods vs gods mess - and now is responsible for Odin’s death, ensuring that he is at the helm of all the other deities.
An apocalyptic battle begins, and Shadow reaches just in time to drive sense into the Old and New gods; he appeals to their good senses, which having prevailed, prevent a climactic end of the world war from happening. Odin’s spirit departs, as do those of the other gods, who deem America unfit for gods (!).Low Key is impaled by Laura, whose battle with purgatory ends with Shadow taking back the golden coin Sweeney gave him.
When Shadow returns to Lakeside, he is able to solve the mystery of the missing children – who were in fact abducted by Hinzlemann, an ancient Germanic god. Hinzlemann sanctified and sheltered the community, making it thrive notwithstanding the adversities that curse the other communities around - all this in exchange for the unconscionable surrender of their children. Shadow puts an end to the evil Hinzlemann, aware that his act endangers the very existence of the town.
Shadow travels to Iceland, meeting the actual Odin, giving him Wednesday’s glass eye for a keepsake. He once more flips a coin to choose his fate, but walks away before seeing it fall to the ground. In keeping with the tradition of fantasy, mythology and monomyth, Gaiman once more creates a gripping tale - which leaves you feeling a little subdued and somewhat blue in the end, for not just America, the gods of every other country have diminished in stature, thanks to the Colossus-like rise of Technology.

Book - Stardust (Written by Neil Gaiman) - Published in 1999

“Adults deserve good fairy tales, too.” (Neil Gaiman)
“Stardust”…the image it conjures is of an ink-blue, diamond studded sky, where the gossamer Milky Way is like a veil across a lovely face. Neil Gaiman does it again - transports the reader into a fantasy world, only this time it is star crossed lovers we meet, hearts pounding, minds wondering whether the two shall meet or not.
We meet the first generation of star crossed lovers way back in 1839 - Dunstan Thorn and Lady Una, he is a denizen of the village of Wall and she is a citizen of Faerie. Although he is betrothed to Daisy, it does not stop him from falling for Lady Una, a slave to the wicked witch Semele. Una conceives a child, whom she leaves in a basket for Dunstan to find.
Blessed with Faerie magic, Tristran feels differently from the rest of the folks of the village Wall. He is in love with the most beautiful girl in a hundred mile radius (well, he should know since he’s the only one allowed out of Wall) - Victoria Forrester, who really doesn’t take him all that seriously. In fact, she wants to throw him off scent and tells Tristran she’ll consider his proposal if he gets her a star.
Elsewhere, in Faerie, a star is knocked down from the heavens by a King looking for an heir. The King Stormhold is actually Tristran’s maternal grandfather, who dies after knocking down a star with the Power of Stormhold-this star is actually a beautiful creature called Yvaine. When Tristran sets eyes on Yvaine, he all but forgets Victoria, and vows now to help her. A whole world of unhappy souls seem to bay for Yvaine’s blood- from the Illim  to the King’s sons are in a race to find her for she can fulfill their motives-so she must be someone really special!



Tristran, on the other hand, is given a silver chain and a candle stub, that lets him cover great distances when lit. Both he and Yvaine escape the witches, and just so she doesn’t disappear, he imprisons her- sorry though that he has to do so. For her part, Yvaine says she is obligated to him for saving her life, for being grateful for help is the Faerie way.
When Tristran is finally given a ride back to Wall, star in tow, unbeknownst to Madame Semele – he is certain that he will have a happy ending with Victoria. Meanwhile, Yvaine realizes she is about to lose the man she loves, and her home - for since she has chosen to come to Wall, she will now turn into a rock!
More bad news in store for Tristran - his beloved is now engaged to be married to Monday, his old employer. However, not one to come in love’s way, Tristran wishes her well and returns to Yvaine- who is happy that Tristran is hers at last. Lady Una, Tristran’s mother free from her curse, tells Tristran that he is the rightful heir to the Kingdom of Stormhold, but he refuses. So Una rules in his stead .Meanwhile, the happy duo overcome their last obstacle - the witch queen who wants to have Yvaine back, she leaves with the grim warning that like all men, Tristran will break her heart, too.
Many years hence, Tristran returns to rule Stormhold, until the day he dies, after which, Yvaine, his queen rules forever, since she is blessed with immortality.
Gaiman’s fairy love story with magical characters leaves you smiling and a wee bit sad at the end. Originally, Stardust was meant to be a picture story book. It is also a motion picture starring the likes of Robert De Niro, Peter O’Toole and Michelle Pfeiffer. The Book has won Neil Gaiman the Alex Award 2000 from the American Library Association.

Novel - Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman in 1990)

Apocalypse, Kal Yuga, Qayamat, Anti-Christ, well, I’m creeped plenty! Thankfully Good Omens: …. is anything but; it is typically “Gaimanesque” with Prachett’s wit thrown in for good measure. Most of Gaiman’s works are considered part of the genre of fantasy; but unlike many of his novels- this would appeal to young adolescents and adults. In an Age of Goblets of Fire and Fellowships of Rings, this would easily pass off as another magical fantasy-but it has religious connotations, unbeknownst to many young readers, so therefore, it is a good read for an older age group.
The End, by any other name would still mean Grim Reapers, avatars of raging gods, death, sorrow, war et al. When the Gates of Eden were shut tight to the world, the Angel Aziraphale (keeper of Eden, now the proprietor of a book shop) and the serpent, who personified Lucifer, now called Crowley (distortion-crawly, for the snake was cursed to crawl on its belly, but now happily ensconced in a 1926 Bentley) - are left on Earth, and loving this state, all play, no work. They are almost friendly, not the adversaries they set out to be over six millennia!
Suddenly, their peaceful coexistence is threatened by the birth of the Anti Christ. Very “The Omen” in its initial approach, including the nuns at the hospital who switch babies, this spoof of the original actually leaves you in splits (yeah sure, the end of the world is an obsession extraordinaire, but why not laugh about it once in a while instead of having mass-Wacko style prognostications and Heaven’s Gate’s arsenic-cyanide laced corpses paving the way to doomsday?). Over a drunken  lunch (post feeding the ducks) - the two share their apprehensions regarding Armageddon, how can they stop a good thing from coming to an end?
Adam Young, the character fashioned a lot like William, the bratty yet angelic boy from Richard Crompton’s book “Just William the Anti Christ”, is the guy they’re after, a refreshingly innocent eleven-year old, naïve towards his own unholy powers. And when he does use these powers- the race is on to find him, and the Four Horsemen (from the Book of Revelations) go a-hunting, relying on the prophecies of Agnes Nutter, 17C prophetess and witch, owned by Anathema Device her niece.


With characters that are human (it’s just their names which aren’t!), the Book does take a funny look at a serious matter that has been the preoccupation of our race -  from the Mayans to  present day doomsday-prophets.
Does the world end? Are the good guys taken up in Rapture? Read the book- it’s the only way you’ll ever know! Although stopping the world from going up in smoke isn’t such a bad idea-after all, Earth has its share of innumerable ‘first grade’ musicians, hell only two and Crowley doesn’t want to hear them play on his way out! Neil Gaiman, originally from England (no doubt from where he got his influences of druids, witches and fairies), lives in the US. He has authored many books for children such as Stardust (a major motion picture starring the likes of Peter O’Toole and Michelle Pfeiffer), Frost Giants, and picture books like Blueberry Girl.
Terry Prachett, actually Sir Terence David John Prachett is a British novelist and creator of the Discworld –a series of forty books. The recipient of the coveted Carnegie Medal for his work The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents in 2001, he has a penchant for black fedoras! He lives in the UK.
Gaiman and Prachett met way back in 1985, and got together to write Good Omens… in 1988.According to Gaiman, “I felt like a journeyman working alongside a master-craftsman in some medieval guild.” Exploring their commonalities, the Book is a labor of friendship and a synergy of common talents.
The Book has been nominated twice in 1991 – for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for the Best Fantasy Novel. It won the FantLab’s Book of the Year Award in 2012.

The Graveyard Book (written by Neil Gaiman) - Published in 2008

"How Nobody Came To The Graveyard"- seems an unnecessary statement of the obvious (NOBODY, really, would like to come to the graveyard!) - until realization sneaks up on you and you learn that Nobody is a toddler - who crawled away from the House of Horrors when  his former abode had been  tragically turned thus by ‘the man Jack’ - a cold blooded assassin from a dark secret society , the Jack of All Trades.
The toddler scrambles away, through wisps of mist and creatures lurking in the dark, to a place all living beings dread- the graveyard. Unbeknownst to the hapless child, the ghost of his mother pleads with the residents of God’s Acre, to help the toddler. The couple  – a picture of ghoulish marital bliss for over two hundred and fifty years (!) – embrace the child as their own, especially since they had none when they were alive.
But like all human traits, the nasty ones we take to our graves, and the arrival of Nobody causes a tussle- should he stay (he isn’t a ghost and has human needs, after all), if he does,  does he get Freedom of the Graveyard? Although they seemed happy to have him, his ghoulish foster parents were exactly that- ghouls, and they seemed clueless as far as their new ward was concerned. And so, Silas (aptly named, for his name means ‘Of the Forest’, or here the graveyard, an equally desolate space), a mysterious creature, is deputed the task for providing for Nobody’s earthly needs.

While they still debated the violation of their macabre space by this little mass of life, the Angel of Death silences every doubt of theirs by appealing to the altruistic side of their otherwise believed to be ‘dead’ conscience. And so- Nobody stays, oblivious to the fate his family met or the strange turn of events that will now alter the course of his life forever!
As ‘Bod’ grows (everyone has a nickname!), he starts to wonder what lies beyond those rusty iron gates, and why is it that though Silas can wander about wherever he wills- Bod ,   must stay put, acquiescing to the fact that this is his domain? Whilst here, Silas and Mr. Pennyworth offer him an education; from the alphabets to reading out loud (Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in The Hat).
So it is one day, as he sits practicing his reading and writing, that he chances upon his first human- Scarlet Amber Perkins, whose parents are most intriguing and interesting- they let her play in the cemetery! And like Alice in the Rabbit Hole, they go inside the hill, to get to the barrow where the oldest member of the graveyard, even older than Caius the Roman, is believed to be buried- returning somewhat disappointed.
The fourth chapter, which was intended to be the first, was also published as a short story in 2008, winning the coveted Locus Award. In it, eight year old Bod defies his foster parents’ diktat to never go there, to the Potter’s Field (the graveyard by another name).Here the souls of ‘sad people’ (not bad) wandered under a pall. But along with them, there also wandered the ghosts of witches. So his second escapade gets him to meet E.H- a 500 year old ‘witch’ Liza Hempstock.
Amidst all the excitement of exploring dark places and meeting wonderful characters, it’s time now for our Bod, aged ten- to have his first dance. So he’s all spruced up, and dances with Liza, and even the Lady Grey who promises that one day he will get to ride her magnificent steed!
When Bod is eleven, Silas tells him of how he came to be at the Graveyard, and that now since he is alive, he must do whatever he can, and so much to Silas’s surprise- he chooses to go to school! But after a few days and narrow escapes, it is decided, for his own good, that he must stay in the graveyard! (most kids would love to have that option!)
As the years progress, Bod remains unaware of Jack- who still has a score to settle and isn’t resting till he sees him dead! In a fancy room, all the men called ‘Jack’ want the killer Jack to get cracking on the case, ‘You had time (TEN years).Now, you just have a deadline.’
Words that ring with foreboding – for outside all human realm, there are powers that govern the lives we lead; we unknowingly are drawn to our fate. Thus, when Scarlet returns with best intentions to solve the mystery of Bod’s family’s tragic end, and when she introduces him to Mr. Jay Frost (historian), his doom is almost certain, for the man is actually Jack!
As the tale draws to a close, Bod starts to lose the powers he has- he cannot see in the dark, nor fade in and out. Everyone including the Owens seem strangely distant and Silas urges him to go forth into the  a world, with a new passport, a wallet with some money in it, and the assurance that when Bod calls on him, he will come.
Finally, Nobody Owens is ready to be a ‘somebody’ in the world-as he wishes his and mother goodbye, and shares his dreams with her, she bids him adieu with a song she  sang for him , as a toddler:
‘Sleep until you waken
When you’re grown you’ll see the world
If I’m not mistaken….leave no path untaken.’
So, Bod leaves his home of so many years, to be amongst his own, before the day he is finally laid to rest: “But between now and then, there was Life; and Bod walked into it with his eyes and his heart wide open.”
Set in another world, almost, the story leaves you fuzzy and warm, longing for a cuppa and more news of young Bod’s escapades in the world of humans- and if school was anything to go by, then things are surely going to get tougher!
A must read for every child, but only after every mom and dad have read the Book! It’ll just make bed time story telling a whole new experience- maybe scary at first (don’t kids just love a good ghost story?), but also the kind that solicits a slight warm tug at your heart strings as your lil’ one cuddles closer, and wants more, feeling nice he’s got daddy and she’s got mommy by their side, poor Bod!
And if a kid’s word isn’t good enough, there’s a whole list of accolades and critical acclaim the Book has received, including a Walt Disney movie offer! The Carnegie Medal, the Hugo award, Newberry Medal - between the years 2009 and 2010.