Comeback
Putnam, 1991
Characters
- Peter Darwin
- 32, diplomat
- John Darwin
- diplomat, married Peter's mom when Peter was 12
- Fred Hutchings
- diplomat, served with Peter in Tokyo
- Vicky Larch
- English, singer, recently married to Greg
- Greg Wayfield
- American, singer, recently married to Vicky
- Belinda Larch
- Vicky's daughter, engaged to marry Ken
- Ken McClure
- vet, engaged to Belinda
- Ronnie Upjohn
- Izzy Eaglewood
- Russet Eaglewood
- Carey Hewett
- head vet
- Lucy Amhurst
- vet
- Jay Jardine
- vet (cattle)
- Oliver Quincy
- vet
- Yvonne Floyd
- vet
- Scott Sylvester
- veterinary nurse, anesthetist
- Wynn Lees
- Annabel Nutbourne
- works for the British Jockey Club
- Zoe Mackintosh
- Josephine McClure
- Ken's mom
- John "Brose" Ambrose
- Deputy director of the security service of the Jockey Club
- Detective Superintendent Ramsey of the Gloucestershire Police
Favorite passages
Ecvinal and JHWax chose as their favorite quote the proposition made by Peter to Russet Eaglewood. He says, :) One of my favorite quotes in Comeback is towards the beginning of chapter two as Peter thinks of a t-shirt he once owned which read: I also liked Fred's description of Peter, which applies to DF heroes in general, I think: Quirky is a good thing, right? :)
I mentally ran through various forms of verbal invitation and came up with the least maudlin, the least lustful, the most humorous, the easiest to refuse. Into a long smiling silence, lolling back in the armchair, I said casually, 'How about a bonk, then?'
Stress is what happens when your gut says NO and your mouth says YES I'D BE GLAD TO.
'Don't worry about Peter,' Fred told them reassuringly. 'He's got this awful quirky mind, but you can rely on him in a crisis.'
Chosen by members of the reading group in the late 1990s. From Comeback by Dick Francis.
The group read it
We discussed Comeback on April 20, 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.