Be the One

Barnes & Noble Guide to New Fiction

From the author of North of Montana comes this "terrific" suspense tale in which a baseball scout tracks a young star prospect to the Dominican Republic and finds herself pulled into a bewildering web of deceit. Most of our readers said, "nothing special." You'll "Be the One-who-falls-asleep if you read this book."

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Cassidy Sanderson, the 35-year-old heroine of Smith's (North of Montana) tough, smart novel, is a baseball scout for the L.A. Dodgers--the only woman scout in the major leagues in 1994. On a hot tip from her godfather, Pedro, a "successful bird-dog scout, " she goes to the Dominican Republic in pursuit of a young center fielder named Alberto Cruz. During this unauthorized trip, she meets Joe Galinis, a downtown-L.A. developer to whom she is immediately drawn. She and Joe, along with Alberto, drive drunk into a hurricane, and a confusing accident in the violent murky weather (related in interspersed flashbacks) yields misfortune that follows them back to Los Angeles. As Cassidy gets Alberto into training in California, the action, somewhat sluggish at the outset, quickens: Alberto and Joe receive anonymous blackmail notes, and Cassidy runs into danger on a trip to view spring training in Vero Beach, Fla. The Dodgers and the L.A. and Vero Beach police departments get involved, which stands to jeopardize the careers of Alberto, Joe and Cassidy--as well as the romance developing between the latter two. To Cassidy, baseball is more than business: formerly a pro softball player, she has always been a pioneer; in addition, she's living out the expectations of her beloved, deceased brother. Befriended in Vero Beach by detective Nate Allen, who later ends up in L.A. on official business, she faces a host of difficult decisions. Smith's characters are hard to empathize with--Cassidy, in particular, keeps her game face so assiduously that the reader only sometimes glimpses her vulnerabilities--and a major leap in determining the blackmailer's motive isn't confirmed until the end, which threatens the story's plausibility. While the writing is generally firm and judicious, Smith's prose sometimes swerves into the overly ornate. But this ambitious novel, much to its credit, does venture beyond these ambivalences to provocatively rephrase the perennial tale of a woman in a man's world. 75,000 first printing. (July) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

The high-testosterone world of professional baseball scouting is the backdrop for a story about the only female scout in the majors. Dogged by bad luck in her previous choices, Cassidy Sanderson needs to sign at least one credible major league prospect and jumps at the chance of taking on Dominican pitcher Alberto Cruz. She signs him, but her last night in the Dominican Republic includes too much booze, an accident, and an impending hurricane. When both she and Alberto start getting increasingly violent threats, she learns that their car had hit and killed a woman, providing an excuse for extortion. At the same time, Cassidy tries to salvage her career and Alberto's while coming to terms with personal betrayals by people she trusted. Admirers of Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski would like Cassidy. Smith is also the author of North of Montana. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/00.]--Marylaine Block, "Librarian Without Walls," Davenport, IA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

School Library Journal

Cassidy Sanderson, the 35-year-old heroine of Smith's (North of Montana) tough, smart novel, is a baseball scout for the L.A. Dodgers--the only woman scout in the major leagues in 1994. On a hot tip from her godfather, Pedro, a "successful bird-dog scout, " she goes to the Dominican Republic in pursuit of a young center fielder named Alberto Cruz. During this unauthorized trip, she meets Joe Galinis, a downtown-L.A. developer to whom she is immediately drawn. She and Joe, along with Alberto, drive drunk into a hurricane, and a confusing accident in the violent murky weather (related in interspersed flashbacks) yields misfortune that follows them back to Los Angeles. As Cassidy gets Alberto into training in California, the action, somewhat sluggish at the outset, quickens: Alberto and Joe receive anonymous blackmail notes, and Cassidy runs into danger on a trip to view spring training in Vero Beach, Fla. The Dodgers and the L.A. and Vero Beach police departments get involved, which stands to jeopardize the careers of Alberto, Joe and Cassidy--as well as the romance developing between the latter two. To Cassidy, baseball is more than business: formerly a pro softball player, she has always been a pioneer; in addition, she's living out the expectations of her beloved, deceased brother. Befriended in Vero Beach by detective Nate Allen, who later ends up in L.A. on official business, she faces a host of difficult decisions. Smith's characters are hard to empathize with--Cassidy, in particular, keeps her game face so assiduously that the reader only sometimes glimpses her vulnerabilities--and a major leap in determining the blackmailer's motive isn't confirmed until the end, which threatens the story's plausibility. While the writing is generally firm and judicious, Smith's prose sometimes swerves into the overly ornate. But this ambitious novel, much to its credit, does venture beyond these ambivalences to provocatively rephrase the perennial tale of a woman in a man's world. 75,000 first printing. (July) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Randy Michael Signor

Those who have been waiting for Smith to follow up her debut novel, North of Montana, will not be disappointed when they get their hands on her latest. Smith's apparently natural talent for creating strong, believable female characters is further demonstrated by her troubled heroine Cassidy Sanderson, a baseball scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Not the most common of callings for a thriller's star player, but it works perfectly for Smith in this story about a lone woman in the rigid world of sports. Cassidy is the daughter of a one-time professional player, and she played pro baseball for the Colorado Silver Bullets (a real-life women's baseball team that was sponsored by Coors beer). The title comes from playground ball, when kids chatter at one another: Be the one is what you say to someone who can save the day. In Smith's book, it means several things: The book revolves around the recruitment and signing of a hot prospect from the Dominican Republic, Alberto Cruz, and it has become critical to Cassidy's career that he be a star, that he be the one to provide her career with a much-needed boost; and she also meets and gets involved with a free-wheeling developer who just might be the one to whom she gives her heart. But things do not go smoothly. There is a confusing car accident in the Dominican Republic that leads to extortion, which, natch, leads to murder, which leads to more murder, and everything along the way contrives to threaten all that Cassidy wants or has built. Exceptionally well written, the book moves quickly, and Smith once again has mined more from her material than anyone has a right to expect. Highly recommended, for baseball fans, for crime-fiction fans, for fans of stories about struggles of the heart.

Kirkus Reviews

The author of North of Montana (1994) uses the world of baseball, as seen through the eyes of a female scout whose career depends on finding hidden talent for the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, as the backdrop for this mystery thriller. Cassidy Sanderson is a rarity: a female talent scout in a world predominantly populated by men. An ex-ballplayer herself—with the Colorado Silver Bullets, an all-women's professional team—the blond stunner receives a call one day from "Uncle Pedro," a friend of her late father's, who has spotted a can't-miss prospect in that hotbed of talent, the Dominican Republic. In the competitive world of sports, Cassidy must act quickly, and so she makes an unauthorized trip south, where, in the midst of a devastating hurricane, she signs the 18-year-old Alberto Cruz, then brings him back to L.A. She also brings back a lover, a particularly appealing albeit mysterious developer by the name of Joe Galinis. And, unfortunately, along with the whiz-bang ballplayer and the lover, she's bringing back something else: death threats, aimed first at Cruz, then at Galinis. Who's behind them? Why are they being made? Will they destroy Cruz's shot at becoming a big league star? While Cassidy tries to find the answers to these questions, and herself becomes the target of the blackmailers, she struggles with coming to grips with the death of her brother, as well as with being a single young woman in her 30s who's trying to carve out a place for herself in the macho world of sports. Smith certainly knows baseball, and she's created a full-dimensioned, interesting character in Cassidy. In the end, though, despite herbreezy,almost screenplay-like style, the story falls disappointingly flat. First printing of 75,000