Break In
M. Joseph, 1985; Putnam, 1986
Characters
- Christmas "Kit" Fielding
- steeplechase jockey
- Holly Allardeck
- Kit's twin sister, married to Bobby Allardeck
- Bobby Allardeck
- trains horses, Holly's husband, son of Maynard Allardeck
- Princess Casilia, Mme. de Brescou
- Wykeham Harlow
- trainer
- Dusty
- Wykeham's traveling head lad
- Lord Bill Vaughnley
- owner of the Sunday Towncrier
- Lady Vaughnley
- Hugh Vaughnley
- the Vaughnley's son
- Maynard Allardeck
- Bobby's father, hates Fieldings
- Jermyn Graves
- Bobby trains his horses
- Grandfather Fielding
- Bunty Ireland
- racing columnist for the Towncrier
- Danielle de Brescou
- American, Roland de Brescou's niece, works for a news bureau
- Sam Leggatt
- editor of the Daily Flag
- M. Roland de Brescou
- the Princess's husband, "a Frenchman of aristocratic lineage, immense wealth and advanced age"
- the Inscombes
- friends of the Princess
- Owen Watts
- works for the Daily Flag
- Jay Erskine
- works for the Daily Flag
- Rose Quince
- writes for the Towncrier
- Marty
- editor of the Towncrier
- Tug Tunny
- edits "Intimate Details"
- Mr. Evans
- from the legal department of the Daily Flag
- Nestor Pollgate
- owner of the Daily Flag
- David Morse
- head of the legal department at the Daily Flag
- Major Clement Perryside
- used to own Metavane
- Lucy Perryside
- Joe
- editor at Danielle's work
- Eric Olderjohn
- civil servant, owns a horse
- George Tarker
- his son owned Purfleet Electronics and committed suicide after Mallardeck took it over
- Saul Bradley
Favorite passages
Break In was my first Dick Francis and one of my favorites! I love when Kit is talking about racing with Danielle the first time he gives her a ride to work
I raced, I thought fancifully, as one might play a violin, making one's own sort of music from coordinated muscles and intuitive spirit. I raced because the partnership with horses filled my mind with perfections of cadence and rhythmic excitement and intensities of communion: and one couldn't exactly say aloud such pretentious rubbish. 'I feel alive,' I said, 'on a horse.'
Chosen by members of the reading group in the late 1990s. From Break In by Dick Francis.
The group read it
We discussed discussed Break In on January 12, 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.