Green Monster

July 21, 2008
Baseball fans will welcome Shefchik’s second mystery to feature sports sleuth Sam Skarda (after 2007’s Amen Corner
). A claim that the Boston Red Sox’ victory in the 2004 World Series resulted from a fix takes Sam from Minneapolis to Boston, L.A. and Caracas as he fends off hit men and fights the clock: he has five days to break the case before Red Sox owner “Lucky” Louie Kenwood must pay an extortionist $50 million. Otherwise, a confession from a key St. Louis Cardinal player will reveal the Sox victory to have been a sham, thereby disgracing—if not destroying—Major League Baseball. Kenwood’s executive assistant, the beautiful and brainy Heather Canby, helps Sam investigate, while Fenway Park’s iconic “Green Monster” provides the setting for two climactic scenes. Like a pitcher changing speeds, Shefchik takes enough off his characterizations to avoid straight-out stereotypes, and he spins a fair simile now and then—a pitch he should add to his regular repertoire.

When the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, the baseball world was turned upside down with sports journalists, fans, and players alike declaring an end to the curse of the Bambino. But what if the curse was never broken at all? What if the Red Sox won only because the games were fixed? This appears to be the case in Rick Shefchik's latest novel, part noir mystery, part all-American sports story. Much praise goes to narrator William Hughes for making this story more believable than the notion that Roger Clemens has never taken steroids. By mixing fact and fiction, Shefchik weaves a plausible tale of deception for which Hughes's hard-nosed vintage tone is perfectly suited. The result is a classic mystery that engages listeners, whether they're baseball fans or not. L.B. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine