Baseball Man: Vinnie Briggs Mystery No 2

By Charles Puccia

When Vinnie says he’ll help, he means it, even if it kills you.

Generosity has limits. Neighbors have boundaries. Vinnie Briggs ignores these details with fatal consequences.

VINNIE has been in San Francisco for two years and is living away from Ben, his partner and a professional bodybuilder based in NYC. With only a homeless ex-ballplayer and a Boston Terrier for company, he’s lonely and miserable until two women move next door. They seem to have the perfect relationship and their surrogate pregnancy inspires Vinnie. He seizes a chance to play happy families, hoping to stand in as a father figure in the place of the anonymous sperm donor.

Then everything goes sideways. Vinnie is shocked to learn the father’s true identity. The mother-to-be refuses to press rape charges, but is it fear or blame-the-victim syndrome? Vinnie knows something’s terribly wrong. With help from the eccentric ex-ballplayer and Ralph the dog, they uncover the surprising truth of deceit, duplicity, and a sexual identity crisis.

Is the father a rapist? Will the women stay together? Vinnie sees the chance to raise a child slip between his fingers, something he desperately wants after years of loneliness. His only hope to keep his dream alive requires Ben to have a child with a surrogate mother. Oh, and he and Ben must convince Vinnie’s best friend’s wife to be that surrogate... It’s a plan with massive risks, but not even Vinnie thinks murder could be among them.

So when a body is found, Vinnie is certain he knows who did it and is determined to find proof. He might well succeed if not for a second body, which makes him the prime suspect and leads to his arrest.

Vinnie’s headed for prison, and the killer’s still on the loose.

Baseball Man comprises gay sex, muscular men, ambiguity, murder, an eccentric ex-baseball player, and a dog with issues. This book is the second in the VB Story Series, following on from the success of Ice Cream Man.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charles Puccia
• Release date: Dec 5, 2017
• ISBN: 9780996323420