Breaking Point - Hardcover

Navratilova, Martina

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679433910 ISBN 13: 9780679433910

Publisher: Villard, 1996

Synopsis

The winningest tennis champion in the world serves up her latest thriller. Jordan Miles, retired tennis pro, is attending one of the grandest parties of the tennis season when a woman's body plunges through the skylight and lands in the koi pool. When Jordan senses a cover-up, this part-time sleuth is determined to get to the bottom of the matter--before someone else is killed.

About this title

About the Author

Martina Navratilova has won more tournaments than any other player in the history of professional tennis. Her autobiography was a New York Times bestseller.
          
Liz Nickles is the author of Baby, Baby and Hype. She lives in Los Angeles.
          
Navratilova and Nickels are also the authors of the first Jordan Myles mystery, The Total Zone.


From the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

st tennis champion in the world serves up her latest thriller. Jordan Miles, retired tennis pro, is attending one of the grandest parties of the tennis season when a woman's body plunges through the skylight and lands in the koi pool. When Jordan senses a cover-up, this part-time sleuth is determined to get to the bottom of the matter--before someone else is killed.

Reviews

Navratilova and Nickles lob a winner into the mystery court with the follow-up to The Total Zone. At Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Jordan Myles?former women's tennis champ, now co-founder of the Desert Springs Sports Science Center?witnesses the fatal fall (through a greenhouse roof) of Catherine Richie, the former assistant to promoter Jimmy Bennet. Although Jordan leaves the investigation to the French police, questions about the death and the hoopla building around the Crown Jewel, the richest tournament on the circuit (which Catherine was promoting), nag at her. Jordan isn't surprised to learn that PI and old friend Noel Fisher has been hired by Catherine's family to find out who murdered her, and she resolves to help him. But when he's hospitalized after being nearly beaten to death, she realizes that both of them are in danger and she must find the killer before she becomes a victim herself. Insights into the tennis circuit and sports medicine combined with a taut mystery serve to move this doubles pair up a notch in the rankings. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

There are several murders in this rather too breathless mystery about the slick, sleazy underbelly of the professional tennis circuit, but one real villain: Big Money. Retired tennis pro Jordan Miles (The Total Zone, 1994), forced from the game by a devastating defeat at Wimbledon, now has a successful career as a physical therapist specializing in sports injuries. Her new life and her lingering fame keep her on the outer edge of the inner circle of tennis, and it's while attending a glitzy party during the French Open that she witnesses the murder of a young woman. Against the advice both of her colleagues and the police, Jordan begins to trace the life of the victim. An old friend, a p.i. hired by the girl's parents, is beaten senseless. Jordan, back at the scene of the crime, is pushed from the building's roof (landing unhurt in a manure pile, in the first of several improbable escapes from danger). Eventually, though, the investigation leads Jordan to a duplicitous tennis agent, two sullen, fading tennis stars, several corporate sponsors with more money than morals and a shadowy conspiracy to rig a major tournament. Navratilova and Nickles's second effort works best in its critical portrait of the interests controlling the billion-dollar industry of professional tennis. Some sharp passages on the harried lives of pros and the extraordinary rewards that the game can offer make it, frequently, authentic and lively. There are one too many hairbreadth escapes, though, in a plot that eventually becomes too tangled to be entirely convincing. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ex-tennis star Jordan Myles attends a prestigious cocktail party in a Paris greenhouse and comes face to face with murder when a woman crashes through the glass roof. To find the killer, the victim's parents hire Jordan's friend, private investigator Noel Fish. After a beating hospitalizes Noel, Jordan takes on the case. Navratilova's simple formula expands to encompass the world of tennis, commercial sports products, and sports medicine allusions, but the presentation lacks excitement, emotion, and humor. For die-hard fans only.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Most celebrities stick to kiss-and-tell autobiographies when they become authors, but gutsy former tennis great Navratilova has never been one to play it safe. She's decided to write mysteries, and even though her first attempt didn't exactly top the best-seller lists, she's back for a rematch. Martina has heeded the advice that good authors should write about what they know best, so her mysteries revolve around tennis. After a horrifying fall in a mountain-climbing accident, former tennis star Jordan Marsh can no longer play, but she can use her background in physical therapy to set up a clinic that caters to the tennis elite. At a tournament in Paris, Jordan sees a young girl fall from the roof of a building, tries to revive her, and when she's unsuccessful, decides to take a personal interest in finding out why the girl died. It's not an easy task--especially after Jordan's own life is threatened. But the stakes are huge, with money, fame, jealousy, and greed all playing a role in the scandalous scheme that led to the murder. Navratilova serves up a nicely written, entertaining story featuring a clever heroine, some nice touches of humor, and a pro's-eye view of competitive tennis. A top seed on the mystery best-seller lists? Maybe not. But good enough to find a spot in most library collections. Emily Melton

Edition details

• Publisher: Villard
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0679433910
• ISBN 13: 9780679433910
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 292