Audiobook9 hours
Hanging Curve
Written by Troy Soos
Narrated by Johnny Heller
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
Critically-acclaimed novelist Troy Soos evokes the spirit and strife of 1920s America in this compelling mystery. Hanging Curve portrays a major league baseball player's struggle to see justice triumph over hatred and the expanding threat of the Ku Klux Klan. Mickey Rawlings hasn't had much time at bat since he joined the St. Louis Browns as a utility infielder. When a former teammate offers him the chance to play in a semi-pro game against the East St. Louis Cubs-a well-known black team-he jumps at the chance. The Cubs turn out to be powerful opponents. But the real battle begins later, after the black pitcher is found hanging from the backstop. Baseball historian Troy Soos interviewed surviving members of the Negro National League to create this absorbing tale. His deft blend of authentic sports lore and period details gives fans something to cheer about. Narrator Johnny Heller's lively performance adds spin to every curve ball in the plot.
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Titles in the series (6)
Murder at Fenway Park Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder at Wrigley Field Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hunting a Detroit Tiger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hanging Curve Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cincinnati Red Stalkings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Hanging Curve
Rating: 3.928571490476191 out of 5 stars
4/5
21 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5If you saw the movie you must read the book in order to make sense of the story
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I haven't read one of these Mickey Rawlings mysteries in quite a long time. This one has been out for over ten years and I recall it being new when I first read one of these. Soos takes the reader back to St. Louis of the roaring twenties in this mystery about the lynching death of Slip Crawford, a Negro League star pitcher, after an exhibition game against a white semi-pro team, on which Rawlings plays under an assumed name. As his season with the St. Louis Browns carries on, he gets deeper and deeper into the racial tensions and Klu Klux Klan of the era, eventually (of course) discovering the unusual circumstances of the murder.The thing I like about these mysteries (there are six) is that they star a fictional utility ballplayer who bounces around the league and plays with or for many of the legends of early baseball. It really works as a series because there is a new setting for each tale, and in this one in particular Rawlings has his best season as a player and investigates a very personal and troubling case. The author is a freelance baseball researcher and I recall from somewhere (a bio in an earlier book?) that he works/worked for the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He had the inspiration to combine his passion for baseball and interest in Agatha Christie to write some unique and historically detailed mysteries. Are they as grand as a Poirot story? Probably not, but they are very clever and interesting in their own right.