Kaye George returns for another “Monday With Kaye” segment
that has quickly become one of the more popular ones on the blog. This week she
considers The Setup Man by T. T. Monday…..
The Setup Man by T. T. Monday
Don’t shy away
from this mystery if you’re not a baseball fan. The industry is seamlessly
interwoven into the story and you’ll pick up all you need to know without any
effort. If you are a baseball fan,
dive in headfirst.
Johnny Adcock
is a setup man for the San José Bay Dogs baseball
team. A setup man, in modern baseball, is a pitcher who is called in for only a
few pitches and not in every game. And he hardly ever bats. He has plenty of
free time and gets paid more money than he knows what to do with. So he does
private investigating in his off time, a profession he fell into but now loves.
The team’s backup
catcher, a young, genuinely nice kid named Frankie Herrera approaches Adcock to
solve his problem: some porno films his wife made before they were married.
When Frankie is killed in a car accident soon after that, the whole mess
doesn’t smell right. Adcock swings into action, assembling his off-diamond
team, a rainbow mix of oddballs. He soon discovers that what he knows is the
tip of a very deep, very dirty iceberg. Toss in his ex-wife and
fourteen-year-old daughter, and you’re in for a good read.
This is the
author’s first thriller, but I hope it’s not his last.
I love sports books and rarely do you find one with a mystery. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI think baseball, especially, is unusual for a mystery. He did a great job on it.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a natural affinity between sports and mysteries. Unfortunately we've recently lost two greats: Alison Gordon who wrote the Kate Henry, baseball sportswriter, series, and Jeremiah Healy who had a series about a tennis pro turned P.I. named Rory Calhoun. I hope T. T.'s series is successful. thanks for bringing it to our attention.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about Gordon's series. Harlan Coben writers the Myron the sports agent, but the sport isn't central as it is in Monday's book. Thanks for coming by, Mark.
ReplyDeleteI'm working on this read and baseball is a huge part of the book. He did a very good job working it in and making baseball a character while keeping the main thrust of the book--the mystery-- going forward.
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