The Baby Game [Hardcover]

Randall Hicks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 8, 2005

A new attorney, Toby Dillon, hedges his bets by remaining the part-time tennis pro at the country club. Then his idyllic life changes when his two childhood friends, Brogan and Rita, Hollywood's glamour couple, ask his help in adopting a baby. The media's feel good story curdles into danger when the baby is kidnapped. When the expected ransom demand never arrives and the police turn up nothing, Toby and Brogan try to find answers on their own. First they think the baby's birth mother is responsible, but suddenly she's missing too, and their suspects start turning up dead. They soon learn there's more at stake than a kidnapping, and the answers may trace back to their shared childhood.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Prominent adoption attorney Hicks, author of the well-received Adopting in America: How to Adopt Within One Year (2004), makes an uneven fiction debut, the first in a series to feature a young California adoption attorney. Toby Dillon's closest childhood friends, now prominent Hollywood celebrities, have turned to him for assistance when they're unable to have children. But the process turns messy when the birth mother disappears; the frantic search for her proves successful, and the couple is rewarded with a beautiful baby girl. The rollercoaster continues when a doctor reveals the mother actually gave birth to twins, leading to another frantic search. Two murders follow before Dillon stumbles on the truth. While the ending twist may surprise some, Hicks hasn't succeeded in effectively grafting his real-world experience onto a mystery plot.
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Review

"A light and tasty treat... an engrossing mystery." -- Mystery Scene Magazine

"An energetic and remarkably adept thriller... a fiction tour-de-force... I could not put this book down." -- Mystery Ink (home of the Gumshoe Awards)

"Light, easy-to-read prose, self-deprecating humor and constant action place this first novel high on the must-have list." -- Library Journal

"One of the most engaging debut novels I've read this year." -- Mystery News

"The ride is fast, the resolution is satisfying and it's got one of the best 'first kiss' scenes I've ever read." -- T. Jefferson Parker (Edgar Award winning author of LAGUNA HEAT and STORM RUNNERS)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 254 pages
• Publisher: Wordslinger Press (August 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096316385X
• ISBN-13: 978-0963163851
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,525,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adoption can be murder., August 8, 2005

By 

Detra Fitch (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Baby Game (Hardcover)

Toby Dillon graduated law school one year ago. He resides in California, but his "office" is at his home. His "home" is currently in one of the condos ringing the golf course of the Coral Canyon Country Club. (Free perk due to his side job as their assistant tennis pro.) Toby is one of the rare lawyers that are actually out to help people, rather than to fatten his own wallet. His specialty is adoption.

Brogan Barlow and Rita MacGilroy are famous movie stars. Toby and Brogan were geeks (friends) together in high school. So to Toby, Brogan and Rita were just great friends who wanted to adopt a baby. All seems to be going pretty much normal. But the birth mother gives birth without going to the hospital. No one thinks too much about it though, because the birth mother hands over the baby girl to the happy new parents.

The birth mother has a time limit, during which she may change her mind about giving her baby up for adoption. One day after this date, Brogan and Rita are celebrating with Toby and some friends when a call comes in that will rock their foundation. In result to the call, the new parents and Toby rush to question the birth mother only to find her gone. Brogan and Toby begin to search for answers to some hard hitting questions. Problem is that the people they need to speak with either do not exist or are turning up dead.

***** I cannot tell more without giving away spoilers, which I refuse to do. The phone call is the turning point, where the reader finds out exactly WHAT the mystery is. However, if you want to figure out the "who" and "why" you will have to pay attention from the very first page. This may be Randall Hicks's first mystery novel, but he wrote about something he knows well, adoption. This gives the mystery a much greater depth and makes it all very realistic. While you find yourself putting together clues with the main characters, you will also find yourself very entertained. Much humor to lighten things up a bit. The result is a wonderful novel that you end up reading more than once. Excellent! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Adoption Can Be Murder, August 11, 2005

By 

J. Quick (@ bookbitch.com) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Baby Game (Hardcover)

The Baby Game is one of those rare books where the improbable works seamlessly. The serious parts make the hairs on the back of your neck tingle and the funny parts are laugh out loud hilarious. An ex Peace Corps, assistant tennis pro, home schooled California attorney, who drives a Ford falcon convertible with a wooden cigar store Indian permanently wedged in the passenger seat sounds like the loser of a Dumb and Dumber contest, but Toby Dillon turns out to be believable, lovable, and competent, in roughly that order. The plot is deliciously twisty and at the halfway point, I still had no idea who the bad guys were. Although there is real jeopardy, there is still some question at that point as to whether a crime had even been committed. Well, actually Toby was well along the way to the five felonies he commits in the course of the book, but otherwise...All is well that ends well and the ending of The Baby Game - "And then I kissed her." The best way to describe it, The Baby Game is similar to Lawrence Sanders' McNally series, only a whole lot better.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A delightful book., January 23, 2006

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Baby Game (Hardcover)

Hicks has written a particularly engaging character in Toby. I also appreciated his making the celebrity couple real, grounded people. There was interesting legal information which didn't bog down the story, and some good twists along the way. But it was Toby's relationship with his grandfather was particularly touching. The book is a bit mystery light, but is an entertaining first book and a series I shall definitely follow.