Caught in the Rundown: A Novel Introducing Jewel Averick and Dee Sweet

An unlikely couple of sleuths--the beautiful, black, spoiled Jewel Averick and her insecure white friend, Dee Sweet--team up to locate the legendary Two-Mile McLemore, a baseball star from the Negro Leagues. A first novel. 10,000 first printing.

Even though D.C. Diamonds star center-fielder, Russell Averick, is rolling in dough, his wife Jewel can't understand why he'd spend $15,000 for his latest bit of memorabilia--a baseball glove that once belonged, not to Hank Aaron or Josh Gibson, but to Two-Mile McLemore, who barnstormed in the Negro Leagues (if he even existed) for a bare year back in the 1930s. So it seems like a perfect revenge for Jewel to sell the glove to Anthony Graves, a rival collector who comes to the door with a cock-and-bull story about his ailing son's fondest wish and a very real $20,000. But when Jewel decides to put some extra spin on her revenge by switching gloves on Graves, she plunges herself and her friend Deanna Sweet, long-suffering wife of Diamonds second baseman Mark Sweet, into adventure. Unbeknownst to Russell, Two- Mile's glove carries the first of seven clues to a fabulous treasure Graves and his ethically-challenged boss are determined to grab for themselves. The baseball wives' treasure hunt swiftly turns into a competitive event, in addition to a whirlwind tour of Negro League cities--Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, New York--that might as well be angling for a slot in Black History Month. But why do Jewel and Dee keep getting such contradictory descriptions of Two-Mile? And how could he have planted the doggerel clues they're following years after he died? A sprightly, undemanding debut that seems perfect for a two- hour TV pilot, complete with savory minor characters, great locations, and love conquering all. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Jewel Averick and Dee Sweet have little in common except marital difficulties with their rich, baseball-playing husbands. Jewel throws a fit when her husband pays fifteen grand for an historic baseball glove, but hidden in it she finds a paper that starts her and Dee on a dangerous quest to cities that had teams in the Negro League. As the two chase clues, pursued by several sleazy hoods, they alternately embarrass, alienate, and protect their husbands. While uneven in tone, inconsistent in character, and short on setting, this first effort may yet succeed on the strength of plot. Still, a marginal purchase.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Saxton's first book is more like a Keystone Cops film than a mystery, with a pair of amateur sleuths the likes of whom you rarely encounter in this genre. Dee Sweet and Jewel Averick would seem to have little in common other than husbands who play for the D.C. Diamonds baseball team. Dee, who is white, is docile to a fault; Jewel, who is black, is anything but. She's impulsive, self-centered, and thoughtless. The two find themselves in partnership, however, after Jewel discovers a clue that she thinks might lead to the whereabouts of Two-Mile McLemore, a legend in the days of the Negro Leagues. Unfortunately, the women aren't the only ones who are interested in the clue, leading to some tricky encounters with a trio of inept bad guys in which Sweet and Averick learn to depend on one another and discover new sides to themselves. A goofy spoof with some snappy dialogue; frivolous but fun. Stephanie Zvirin