Hangman's Game

June 1, 2015
Former Sports Illustrated reporter Syken makes his fiction debut with this well-told first in a football-themed mystery series. Punter Nick “Hangman” Gallow of the Philadelphia Sentinels and his agent, Cecil Wilson, take first-round draft choice Samuel Sault to a steakhouse, where they’re greeted by the Sentinels’ obnoxious star linebacker, Jai Carson, who invites them to join his party. The diffident Samuel insults Jai by saying no. After dinner, the three visit the Sentinels’ empty stadium, where a drive-by shooting kills Samuel and wounds Cecil. Detective Rizotti, the lead investigator, homes in on Jai as the chief suspect, but Nick knows that pass rusher Samuel left a trail of broken quarterbacks during his college career, any one of whom may have wanted him dead. Syken really nails the world of professional football, including the training camp competition between Nick and a rival rookie punter, as well as the violence, conspicuous consumption, and tragic endings endemic to the sport. Agent: Joanna Pulcini, Joanna Pulcini Literary Management.

June 15, 2015
Sportswriter Syken's fiction debut takes you inside the world of a pro football punter. After five years with the Philadelphia Sentinels, Nick Gallow still gets no respect. His girlfriend Jessica's husband, Federal Reserve officer Dan Steagall, seems so untroubled by their affair that he sends Nick email invitations to dinner at their place. Since Nick spends less than an hour a year on the playing field, it's no surprise that Jai "JC" Carson, the Sentinels' star linebacker, doesn't even recognize his teammate when Nick walks into Stark's Steakhouse with Samuel Sault, the green defensive end the team has just signed, and Cecil Wilson, their mutual agent. When Sam and Cecil get shot, Sam fatally, before Nick's eyes a few hours after JC trash-talks Sam on his way out of the restaurant, Detective Rizotti, of the Philadelphia police, treats Nick as an incompetent witness who couldn't even get the shooter's license-plate number or, even worse, as a suspect himself. Even Melody, the friendly Stark's waitress who accepts from Nick the $500 bottle of champagne Cecil tried to send JC before he sauntered out, vanishes from under Nick's nose when he finds out her last name. Syken's dialogue goes down as smoothly as one of the cocktails Nick's training regimen forbids, and he spins a series of nifty scenes, though you can't help feeling that characters pop in and out of the story at the author's whim rather than according to the logic of their own desires. That goes for the killer, whom even the wiliest genre veterans won't spot until he turns up out of nowhere just in time to get hit by the curtain that comes crashing down. Syken does so well with small-scale matters that you can't help rooting for him to master the business of unfolding a story that's more than a succession of effective scenes.

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July 1, 2015

Nick Gallow remade himself as a punter after his career as a college quarterback was derailed. Known as Hangman because of his great punt hang-time and a wordplay on his last name, he now plays for the Philadelphia Sentinels. Nick's agent, Cecil Wilson, invites him out for dinner with the Sentinels' newest recruit, Samuel Sault, who's worth $64 million. But when Sault is gunned down after dinner in front of the stadium, the team is in an uproar. Jai Carson, the Sentinels' starting defensive linebacker, is the number one suspect. VERDICT Former Sports Illustrated reporter Syken knows the cutthroat business that is professional football and brings it vividly to life in this engaging debut mystery. Nick is a great character, with insecurities and foibles that ring true for players at this elite level. A lot of humor leavens the suspense. Fans of Tim Green or Harlan Coben's "Myron Bolitar" series will definitely want to catch this one.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2015
Nick Gallow is the punter for the Philadelphia Sentinels pro football team. On the first night before camp, Nick goes to dinner with Samuel Salt, the team's newly signed first-round pick, and Cecil Wilson, both players' agent. A random meeting at the restaurant with Jai Carson, the team's veteran defensive star, ends in harsh words. After dinner, Gallow and Wilson are showing the rookie the stadium when a drive-by shooter leaves Salt dead and Wilson severely wounded. Gallow's guilt about his failure to get a license number prompts him to start poking around. Who was the target? The media decides it was Salt, and Carson was the shooter. It's a leap of bad faith Gallow refuses to take. Could Wilson, rumored to have a gambling issue, have been the target? Other theories emerge: one of the several quarterbacks Salt injured during his college career decided to retaliate; or bigots back in Alabama resent Salt's interracial romance; or, most troubling, the Sentinels' fiftyish head coach, rumored to have had an affair with Salt's teen sister, is responsible. Author Syken, a veteran Sports Illustrated editor, nails the pro-football milieu. His mystery is also spot-on. He engages a moody, lonely protagonist in a very complex mystery in which nothing is as it seems, at least until the conclusion, when Gallow and the reader can see it very clearly in the rearview mirror. This is the very best sports-themed mystery in years and a robust debut novel. Don't miss it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)