The Cincinnati Red Stalkings (Mickey Rawlings Series #5)

by Troy Soos

Overview

""Equal parts baseball and mystery are the perfect proportion."" --Robert Parker

The Big Dead Machine

It's 1921, and journeyman infielder Mickey Rawlings finds himself on yet another team, the Cincinnati Reds, who everyone remembers for ""winning"" the 1919 World Series against the infamous Chicago Black Sox. In an effort to refurbish their image, Oliver Perrimen, a die-hard Reds fan cooks up a memorabilia exhibit of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, who went undefeated in a historic coast-to-coast romp. But before the tour can reach first base, someone strikes Ollie out with a well-placed bullet. Since murder seems to follow Mickey around like a hitting slump he can't quite quit, he starts snagging clues. Soon enough he finds his hands full with a forgotten murder, breaking and entering, and an angry girlfriend. But when the game of his own life is on the line, Mickey Rawlings is a born survivor. At least he hopes. . .

Praise for the Mickey Rawlings Baseball Mysteries

""Full of life."" --The New York Times Book Review on Hanging Curve

""A perfect book for the rain delay. . .a winner!"" --USA Today on Murder at Fenway Park

""Delightful. . .mixing suspense, period detail that will leave readers eager for subsequent innings."" --Publishers Weekly on Murder at Fenway Park

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780758287434
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	06/25/2013
Series:	Mickey Rawlings Series , #5
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	965,410
Product dimensions:	5.02(w) x 7.01(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Troy Soos is a critically acclaimed author, teacher, and former research physicist. He is best known for his Mickey Rawlings series of baseball mysteries. His novels have been reviewed in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and USA Today. Soos is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the Society for American Baseball Research. He currently lives in Lake Howell, Florida (near Winter Park, Florida).

Editorial Reviews

Two years after the Chicago Black Sox scandal rocked major league baseball, the Cincinnati Reds are still trying to prove that they won the 1919 World Series, and that the White Sox didn't just hand it to them. Oliver Perriman, a Reds fan who'd like to remember happier times, wants to mount an exhibit of memorabilia featuring the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, who beat every team they played in a historic coast-to-coast tour. No sooner has the Reds management signed on to Ollie's plan, though, than he's shot to death, presumably by somebody who had an eye out for a particular bit of Red Stockings history. Could it have been the ball or the baseball cards he gave to the Reds' latest acquisition, rolling-stone utility infielder Mickey Rawlings? Mickey promises his live-in girlfriend, ex-serial queen Margie Turner, that he's not going to get involved this time, but it's too late. By the time Mickey uncovers evidence of a 50-year-old murder, somebody's already broken into his house looking for the fatal evidence, and somebody's trying to smear him by linking him to the gamblers who bought the 1919 Series. Will Mickey end up a "permanent ineligible," the latest casualty of autocratic Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis? No way, as Mickey never says. But his fifth adventure (Hunting a Detroit Tiger, 1997, etc.) is stronger on baseball trivia—the Reds have an especially rich tradition—than on that untidy old mystery.

Kirkus Reviews