Dead Ball: A Novel of Murder and Passion
by G.P. Hutchinson
2020 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards Finalist
"Crime fans and baseball fanatics alike will be enthralled by this retro tale of love and revenge...Historically accurate details of pre-regulation baseball and nail-biting suspense will captivate crime and sports fans." -- BookLife Reviews
"[Dead Ball is] a historically based murder mystery with plenty of surprises--and with a beautiful romantic subplot." --Gary Livacari, author of Reflections on the 1919 Black Sox
Hutchinson's engrossing historical baseball thriller, Dead Ball, begins in 1912 when St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Hal Gerecke unleashes a throw he'll regret as long as he lives. Popular Boston Braves hitter Rube Wannamaker evidently never catches sight of the incoming fastball, and the next thing Hal knows, Rube is on the ground, unconscious and bleeding.
As succeeding weeks pass, it becomes apparent that the errant pitch has left Rube in a permanent vegetative state.
Gutted by the incident, Hal abandons baseball for married life with spunky Gracie Matthews, but recruiters for the newly formed and supposedly safer Mutual League soon pull him out of retirement. Certain folks, meanwhile--including mysterious baseball newcomer Johnny Wagner--haven't forgotten Hal's fateful fastball. Believing he purposely maimed Rube, they're out for blood, and Hal's life is in serious danger.
Also by GP Hutchinson:
"Crime fans and baseball fanatics alike will be enthralled by this retro tale of love and revenge...Historically accurate details of pre-regulation baseball and nail-biting suspense will captivate crime and sports fans." -- BookLife Reviews
"[Dead Ball is] a historically based murder mystery with plenty of surprises--and with a beautiful romantic subplot." --Gary Livacari, author of Reflections on the 1919 Black Sox
Hutchinson's engrossing historical baseball thriller, Dead Ball, begins in 1912 when St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Hal Gerecke unleashes a throw he'll regret as long as he lives. Popular Boston Braves hitter Rube Wannamaker evidently never catches sight of the incoming fastball, and the next thing Hal knows, Rube is on the ground, unconscious and bleeding.
As succeeding weeks pass, it becomes apparent that the errant pitch has left Rube in a permanent vegetative state.
Gutted by the incident, Hal abandons baseball for married life with spunky Gracie Matthews, but recruiters for the newly formed and supposedly safer Mutual League soon pull him out of retirement. Certain folks, meanwhile--including mysterious baseball newcomer Johnny Wagner--haven't forgotten Hal's fateful fastball. Believing he purposely maimed Rube, they're out for blood, and Hal's life is in serious danger.
Also by GP Hutchinson:
- "Over the Right Field Wall: A Yarn from the Early Innings of America's National Pastime"
- "Pickoff: A Roaring Twenties Baseball Novel" (Coming Autumn 2020)
- Western Fictioneers' Peacemaker-Award-Winning Novel "Strong Convictions"
- Readers' Favorite Gold-Medal-Winning Western "Strong Suspicions"
- Readers' Favorite Silver-Medal-Winning Novel "Strong Ambitions"
- "Cimarron's Law" (Cimarron Jack Westerns Book 1)
- "High Plains Redemption" (Cimarron Jack Westerns Book 2)
- "Buffalo Dance" (Cimarron Jack Westerns Book 3)
- "Reno Carrigan: Lawman"
