Strike Three You're Dead - Softcover

Rosen, Richard D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451401425 ISBN 13: 9780451401427

Publisher: Berkley, 1986

Synopsis

A slugger struggles with an empty ballpark and a murdered teammate.

The Providence Jewels, an American League expansion team, have been taking a beating all season. Worse, relief pitcher Rudy Furth has just suffered a beating of a more lethal kind - and been left to die in the clubhouse whirlpool among whispers of mob corruption and violently lovesick fans.

When the police investigation stalls, veteran Providence center fielder Harvey Blissberg, who knew Furth as well as anyone, decides to play detective. While trying to keep his eye on the ball, and his head above water with the spunky, beautiful sports newscaster Mickey Slavin, Blissberg quietly stalks Furth’s killer through major-league locker rooms and the dark streets of Rhode Island’s capital city. Lots of ballplayers keep their batting averages above .300 - but how many have chased a murderer at the same time?

About this title

Review

Penzler Pick, September 2001: Originally published in 1984 and winner of the prestigious Edgar Award for Best First Novel, Strike Three, You're Dead is a brainy baseball mystery that quickly developed a cult following. Burrowing into the lives of troubled clients, former Red Sox center fielder Harvey Blissberg was a character one could take to heart: all too human in his frailties and able to fit, however uneasily, his morality to the exigencies of the situation. He commonly finished his cases having learned as much about himself as about the crime, the criminal, the victim, or his client.

Three entries in the series followed: Fadeaway, Saturday Night Dead, and World of Hurt. Now, 10 years after the last of these, Rosen is about to resume his hero's career with Dead Ball, coming out in November. In anticipation, Rosen's publisher has reissued Strike Three, You're Dead.

Read it to get acquainted with Harvey, known to his teammates as the Professor because of his fondness for Harris tweed jackets and hardcover books. Read it to learn all about that dysfunctional family, the Providence Jewels, the American League expansion team to which Harvey has descended from the former heights of the Boston Red Sox outfield. Read it to get psyched for Dead Ball and the return of Harvey Blissberg. But, most of all, read it to understand why Strike Three, You're Dead won an Edgar, was called by The Denver Post "one of the best sports detective novels of all time," and was named one of the century's best mysteries by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. --Otto Penzler

Book Description

From the author of the acclaimed series featuring major-league baseball player Harvey Blissberg comes this Edgar Award–winner for Best First Novel in which a slugger struggles with an empty ballpark and a murdered teammate.  

Edition details

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0451401425
• ISBN 13: 9780451401427
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 1