Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Dangerous Play by Elise Hart Kipness

After reading the second rip-roaring mystery about sports reporter Kate Green, I would have known without being told that author Elise Hart Kipness was a former sports reporter herself. The book is overflowing with the authentic detail available only to the subject matter expert. Some of the very best parts describe the pressure of live reporting from a dynamic scene while simultaneously coordinating with producers and technical staff back at the broadcasting station. These sections will give readers a new appreciation for live action reporters, who make what they are doing look easy.

The book tells two stories, one about Kate Green the budding soccer star who helped bring an Olympic gold medal home years ago, and the second about an older Kate Green who moved on from the game and turned her experience into a live network sports reporting career. The first thread describes the grueling training Olympic hopefuls and their families endure, and the cutthroat competition among the players for a few coveted places on the final team.

The second thread takes place in the present during the Olympics summer games being hosted in New York, where Kate gets the on-air reporting assignment because the coach of the U.S. soccer team is one of her former Olympics team mates and Kate’s management assumes she will be able to capitalize on the relationship to gain access to the team and exclusive material.

One of the U.S. soccer players is displaying shockingly poor sportsmanship and creating a disruptive locker room, and the media’s focus is on her antics until the body of a former Olympic hopeful from Kate’s playing days is found in the medical treatment area underneath Madison Square Gardens. Both Kate and the U.S. soccer team coach knew the victim well at one point in their lives, and naturally the police assume they had something to do with the death. Not unnaturally Kate decides to investigate on her own.

Kate’s father, who had chosen his law enforcement career over his marriage when Kate’s mother gave him an ultimatum, is active in the investigation and he is Kate’s source for forensic information. So often in amateur sleuth mysteries the nonprofessional relies on a police boyfriend, a device that has been overused, so supplying a parent as an inside source is a refreshing change.

Another good bit is the incident involving the release of false information. While it was pulled within the hour, the release was so deliberately sensational that it spread like wildfire across the Internet and did some damage. Some pointed comments about the media’s responsibility in stopping misinformation instead of chasing ratings were completely on target.

I realized about two-thirds through what the motive for the killing was, which pointed at an obvious culprit but other readers may well not be as jaded as I am. Even so, the strength of this very good mystery is in the portrayal of the cutthroat world of Olympic sports and the similarly vicious ecosphere of network media.

 

·       Publisher: ‎Thomas & Mercer (September 17, 2024)

·       Language: ‎English

·       Paperback: ‎285 pages

·       ISBN-10: ‎1662512686

·       ISBN-13: ‎978-1662512681 

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3X7JUqK 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2024 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.