Sudden Death

Outrageous, irrepressible and endlessly  entertaining, the bestselling author of Rubyfruit Jungle  and Bingo spins a behind-the-scenes tale of women's  professional tennis that dramtically intertwines  the heart-stopping excitement of competition and  the lingering heartache of intimate human bonds.  Carmen Semanan loves three things passionalty:  tennis, money and professor Harriet Rawls. Just  twenty-four, Carmen is at her peak as one of the  world's top-seeded tennis champions, determined to win  the coveted Grand Slam. She is protected from  everything but the grueling demands of her sport by an  avericious agent and her devoted gusty Harriet.  All the odds are in her favor. But there are weeds  growing in her paradise patch. Carmen's vey latin  brother, Miguel, parlays her succes into a  financial house of cards with deals that include  smuggling, forgery, and fraud. Susan Reilly, Carmen's  archrival and former lover, leaks word of Carms's  relationship with Harriet to the press—and tennis's  best-kept secret is blown into a front-page  scandal. From the French Open to Wimbledon, jealousies,  ambitions and passions are set to explode. Now,  with everything she cherishes on the line, Carmen  must test the true depths of her feelings-both on  and off the court.

Outrageous, irrepressible and endlessly  entertaining, the bestselling author of Rubyfruit Jungle  and Bingo spins a behind-the-scenes tale of women's  professional tennis that dramtically intertwines  the heart-stopping excitement of competition and  the lingering heartache of intimate human bonds.  Carmen Semanan loves three things passionalty:  tennis, money and professor Harriet Rawls. Just  twenty-four, Carmen is at her peak as one of the  world's top-seeded tennis champions, determined to win  the coveted Grand Slam. She is protected from  everything but the grueling demands of her sport by an  avericious agent and her devoted gusty Harriet.  All the odds are in her favor. But there are weeds  growing in her paradise patch. Carmen's vey latin  brother, Miguel, parlays her succes into a  financial house of cards with deals that include  smuggling, forgery, and fraud. Susan Reilly, Carmen's  archrival and former lover, leaks word of Carms's  relationship with Harriet to the press—and tennis's  best-kept secret is blown into a front-page  scandal. From the French Open to Wimbledon, jealousies,  ambitions and passions are set to explode. Now,  with everything she cherishes on the line, Carmen  must test the true depths of her feelings-both on  and off the court.

Elisabeth Jakab

''Sudden Death'' is a rather cluttered book in which the reader is never quite sure where the focus is supposed to be since the author, while she doesn't give everyone equal time, does incline to give them equal weight....The novel tends to read like the casebook of an anthropologist stranded in the midst of a disappointingly boring tribe. She does what she can, but there's just not that much to work with. -- New York Times

 
Rita Mae Brown is the bestselling author of several novels, including the Sneaky Pie Brown series, the Sister Jane series, Rubyfruit Jungle, In Her Day, and Six of One, among many others. An Emmy-nominated screenwriter and a poet, Brown lives in Afton, Virginia.