The Shake: A Novel of Crime

The notorious forward of Portland's professional basketball team, LaPrince Wheatley becomes embroiled in an affair with an underage groupie while high on cocaine at a private party, never expecting that the entire thing had been videotaped, and falls prey to a seedy reporter with a taste for blackmail

Sex, drugs and blackmail in the NBA! This hard-driving, jive-talking debut thriller by an award-winning Portland, Ore., sportswriter (Rookie: When Michael Jordan Came to the Minor Leagues) has about as many head fakes and high fives as a Michael Jordan-led fast break. Having discovered the love of his life in the person of his beautiful, super-smart adversary, public defender Paige Prescott, assistant DA (and demon prosecutor) Max Travis, head of the Portland Violent Crimes Unit, is on a self-imposed sabbatical after being wrongly fired, then reinstated. Max finds himself up to his eyeballs in trouble after taking in his former college pal Tommy MasonAa down-on-his-luck sportswriter who is doing a story on LaPrince Wheatley, a third-year bad boy traded to the Portland PlunderAwhen Tommy steals a videotape of LaPrince boffing Little Bang, a 16-year-old thrill-seeking groupie and daughter of a charismatic local TV psychologist. The writer becomes an unwilling conspirator in an ill-thought-out blackmail scheme when he gives the tape to a sleazy crony for safekeeping. After LaPrince's ex-con half-brother, Wink, shows up with a witless sidekick looking to hit up the star for easy money, heads get banged, a woman is raped and the swindle turns into a nightmare, ending in double murder. Occasionally suffering from an overload of ethnic street lingo, the plot moves at fast-break speed, juxtaposed against the sweetly drawn subplot of battle-weary Max's rocky affair with the iron-maiden Paige. An entertaining edge-of-your-seat fiction noir, this novel seems a sure bet to keep even nonsports buffs turning pages. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This first novel from sports columnist Patton (Rookie: When Michael Jordan Came to the Minor Leagues, not reviewed) charts the thoroughly unpleasant misadventures of a videotape showing a basketball star enjoying himself with an underage teen. Which of the following people would this situation be most likely to get into serious trouble? (A) Audrey Van Kirkman, a.k.a. “Little Bang,” the basketball groupie who’ll go to any lengths with any player to get back at her racist father, the preening media shrink who hasn’t a clue what his daughter’s up to? (B) LaPrince Wheatley, the phenom lately signed by the Portland Plunder, who doesn’t break off his unexpected encounter with Little Bang when she informs him she’s only 16? (C) Rod Yardley, the wealthy realtor who’s thoughtfully supplied the pad, the booze, and the blow to provide LaPrince the perfect romantic setting, but neglected to inform him that he’ll be videotaping the action? (D) Tommy Mason, the has-been reporter who avenges his ridicule by the Plunder’s in-crowd by sneaking into Yardley’s place and purloining the tape? (E) Richie Bodie, the lowlife acquaintance Tommy takes his find to? The answer, of course, is (F), all of the above, and more, especially when LaPrince’s no-nonsense agent Bernie Herman, the star’s ex-con half-brother LaMetrius (Wink) Jefferson, and Wink’s buddy, pumped-up half-pint Titan Milton, get into the act. That smell of gunpowder is from all the loose cannons going off—and it’s what prevents the eventual detectives, Assistant D.A. Max Travis and his rival and lover, public defender Paige Prescott, from cutting much of a figure themselves, even when they get pulled into danger along with everybody else. Patton’s plot, fueled by slick moves and a knowing air of debauchery, drives forward relentlessly, though it’s hard to care about the fate of a crew whose vile behavior has earned every felony that befalls them. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

LaPrince Wheatley, the new bad boy of the NBA, is getting ready to start anew with the Portland Plunderers, his third team in five years. Tommy Mason is a freelance sportswriter struggling with a drug problem. Wheatley needs good press, and Mason, desperate for a story, is an obliging sycophant. Mason quickly becomes a part of Wheatley's entourage, getting the big man drugs and basking in the reflected glow of celebrity. When Wheatley gets himself videotaped in a sexual act with a 16-year-old hoop groupie, Mason decides blackmail may be his ticket. Complicating the mess are Wheatley's ex-con half-brother, a slimeball agent, a couple of ex-wives and, of course, a dead body. Author Patton, a sportswriter himself, obviously will not be invited to NBA commissioner David Stern's office for a congenial tea. Patton's fictional NBA is a cesspool of sex, drugs, and moral compromise, but the author's knowledge of sports and athletes gives it considerable credibility. A good thriller and a disturbing look at pro basketball. Wes Lukowsky
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There are good guys in this seamy first novel by sports columnist Patton about the underside of basketball, but only in the first and last chapters. In between we see nothing but loathsome people: the stupid, arrogant, lazy player who doesn't understand that he can't afford to screw up yet again; his violent ex-con brother, who wants to live off him; his supposed friend, who videotapes him having sex with an underage girl; another friend, who steals the tape; and a guy who uses it to blackmail the player and tries to double his money by blackmailing the team's owner (the girl's father). The heroes, lawyers who know some of these people, try to clean things up but not in time to prevent murder and keep the girl from being victimized again. The story gets exciting if you hang in there, but it's an ugly, foul-mouthed book. Not recommended.AMarylaine Block, "Librarian Without Walls," Davenport, IA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.