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Overview
Fenway Park, Boston's "lyric little bandbox" and the home of the doleful Red Sox, has served up more New England tears than the Parker House Hotel has rolls. Ever since 1918, the year Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees for thirty pieces of silver, Red Sox fans have seen great campaigns snuffed out by dismal postseason lapses. Now a death of a more literal variety has slunk past the gates on Yankee Way. It's Old Timers' Day at Fenway - three innings of nostalgia, buffet lines, and straining uniform buttons. As Red Sox bygones are being heaped upon bygones, two ex-Sox whose critical blunders at crucial moments have robbed the franchise of World Series titles are struck down like line drives whacked at the Green Monster. Perhaps not coincidentally, the two victims were also partners in an attempt to buy the franchise from an embattled Beacon Hill widow. It happens in front of veteran sportswriter and ballpark sleuth Duffy House. and his chowder-loving niece, Petey. Quicker than you can say one-if-by-Pesky, two-if-by-Buckner, they are dispatched by the commissioner of baseball to delve into the tart intrigues of the Red Sox. From jaundiced sportswriters, lunatic outfielders, and embittered black stars to Zen-loving former pitchers, aloof Hall-of-Famers, and unbalanced South Boston groundskeepers - in short, the pantheon of Fenway Park's denizens through the years - Duffy and Petey have no shortage of Back Bay suspects. In an investigation that transforms the New England countryside from scenic to sinister, Duffy and Petey encounter their most ruthless ballpark killer yet. They learn what Bostonians have known for decades: Root for the Sox and your heart will break.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
This hardcover debut is the fourth Duffy House baseball mystery by the pseudonymous team of William Brashler ( The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings ) and free-lance editor Reinder Van Til. Lots of ballpark lore is spiced with a little murder as irascible retired sportswriter Duffy House and his nubile niece Petey, who does the legwork, leave Chicago for Boston and an Old-Timer's game. Poison in the potato salad and a shot of nicotine in the chewing tobacco fell two club legends. Although House has his eye (in more ways than one) on the very attractive owner Mrs. Patsy Dougherty, the strangled corpse of a pitcher, with his fingers broken post-mortem, makes him look elsewhere. Fueled with rapid-fire baseball trivia and the slick repartee of perky Petey and her gruff Unk, the story features jealous journalists and former players who, once colorful, may now be dangerously nuts. Maybe not a home run, but a solid hit nonetheless. (Apr.)Wes Lukowsky
Retired sportswriter Duffy House is, among other things, a little overweight, widowed, and given to solving murders for his friend, baseball commissioner Grand Chambliss. The latter is becoming a full-time job, as Duffy works his way from corpse to corpse and team to team--"Murder in Wrigley Field" (1991), "Bleeding Dodger Blue" (1991). This time the action takes place at Fenway Park in Boston. The Red Sox are up for sale. One of the potential buyers, Ossee Schreckengost, a former player, dies of apparent food poisoning before an old-timers' game. Another former player, Lou Criger, goes down during the game. Foul play is suspected, and the commissioner asks Duffy to help. Ably assisted by niece Petey, a walking baseball encyclopedia, Duffy begins with the very attractive owner of the Sox, widow Patsy Dougherty. Crabbe Evers (a pseudonym for the writing team of Bill Brashler and Reinder Van Til) has the Duffy House formula down pat: lots of baseball lore plus a very clever plot equals an enjoyable light mystery for diamond fans.Book Details
Published
March 1, 1994
Publisher
Avon Books (Mm)
Pages
256
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780380718658