The year is 1918, the place, the North Side of Chicago. Starting for the first-place Cubs and hitting a career high of .274, for the first time in his life, Mickey Rawlings is feeling comfortable enough to buy furniture. But it is a time of mixed blessings; ominous battles are brewing at home and abroad. On the homefront, Major League baseball may be suspended for the duration of the war, anti-German sentiment is running high, and Mickey's best friend-a rookie named Willie Kaiser-has just been shot right on the diamond. Mickey doesn't buy the official explanation of "accidental death from a stray bullet." To him it is beginning to smell like murder. Mickey's search for answers takes him from silent movies to speakeasies to the stockyards. Troy Soos is celebrated for his skill in recreating an old-time baseball atmosphere and unforgettable real-life characters, and Johnny Heller, as Mickey, captures all the colorful detail.
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"A terrific mix of baseball and mystery set in 1913. Some of the action also takes place in an old-time movie studio, so we get some history of both the game and silent films. Quite a fun read! "
— Patty (4 out of 5 stars)
“Equal parts baseball and mystery are the perfect proportion.”
— Robert B. Parker, New York Times bestselling author“Along with a first rate wartime atmosphere, Soos gives us cameo appearances by such baseball legends as Shoeless Joe Jackson and Bonehead Fred Merkle…Rawlings still turns double plays and solves murders with equal grace.”
— Publishers Weekly“[A] quietly effective portrait of wartime Chicago in the throes of painful German-baiting and on the verge of Prohibition.”
— Kirkus Reviews" Sabotage and murder during the 1918 Cubs season, with World War I going on. Interesting premise, but didn't really engage me all that much. Not as much baseball in the storyline as I expected. It was okay, probably 2 1/2 stars, but no great page turner. "
— Bruce, 8/6/2013" Interesting period piece, especially the trivia about people getting rid of their dachsunds during WW I because they were German. Enjoyed the mix of baseball and mystery. "
— Jim, 11/13/2012" Entertaining historical fiction about baseball and murder in Chicago the Teens and 20s. cozy and formulaic plot. "
— Leon, 5/5/2012" An excellent mix of murder, New York City locales circa 1914, and Baseball. A light, quick, enjoyable read. "
— Ralph, 6/6/2009Johnny Heller, winner of numerous Earphones and Audie Awards, was named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine in 2019. He has been a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award winner from 2008 through 2013 and he has been named a top voice of 2008 and 2009 and selected as one of the Top 50 Narrators of the Twentieth Century by AudioFile magazine.