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The Dead Pull Hitter [Mass Market Paperback]

Alison Gordon (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)


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Book Description

April 1, 1989
I’m Katherine Henry. My friends call me Kate. I am a baseball writer by trade. I’m forty, older than most of the Titans, including the manager. I’m tallish, prettyish, and a lot more interesting than most of the people I write about.

I’m good at my job, to the active disappointment of some of my male colleagues, who have been waiting for me to fall on my face since the day I walked into my first spring training.

I am also the only woman on the team plane who doesn’t serve drinks.


Kate has her problems with the arrogance, ignorance, easy money and bigotry of the sports world. She also has impossible deadlines and puts in weeks of overtime. But it’s all in a baseball-season’s work.

Until the day the designated hitter doesn’t show for the game: someone seems to have used his skull for batting practice.

The homicide squad is called in, and Kate’s search for a scoop puts her at odds, and in pleasantly close contact, with the law. As real life impinges on the world of baseball, Kate learns how naïve – and vulnerable – she really is.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Whodunit aficionados and baseball fans alike will enjoy this thoroughly engaging novel that provides a colorful inside view of the all-American pastime. The characters are authentic, the plot deftly paced and the narrative lively and humorous. Kate Henry, a 40-year-old baseball writer, covers the Toronto Titans for the Toronto Planet. The veteran reporter is intelligent, feisty and enamored of her job. The Titans are about to clinch the pennant, but designated hitter Sultan Sanchez misses the big game. During the victory celebration the team announces that Sultan is dead. The next morning, the body of ace pitcher Steve Thorson is found in the clubhouse, and it appears that the two murders are related. Even worse, the killer must be someone connected with the team. In pursuit of this hot story, Kate confronts blackmail, drugs and, eventually, the culprit. Gordon's feminine viewpoint injects new life into the sports mystery. The author, who spent five years covering the Blue Jays for the Toronto Star , was the first woman to cover the American League beat and wrote the nonfiction Foul Balls . She deserves to make the All-Star team.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Praise for Kate Henry mysteries by Alison Gordon:

“Kate Henry’s biting wit makes her one of the most captivating new women in mystery fiction.”
Publishers Weekly

“…as a story teller [Gordon] is batting 1.000.”
–Montreal Gazette

“Cleverly plotted and skilfully written as a puzzle plot gets.”
Globe and Mail

“Alison Gordon’s writing has a comfortable, effortless quality. Events flow and glide, and the feeling, as you read her books, is something close to cozy…Just call me jealous.”
–Jack Batten

“Gordon shows she belongs in the major leagues of crime writers.”
Toronto Star

Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: McClelland & Stewart (April 1, 1989)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0771034202
  • ISBN-13: 978-0771034206
  • Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,659,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful first effort, February 21, 1999
By 
This review is from: The Dead Pull Hitter (Mass Market Paperback)
Alison Gordon's "The Dead Pull Hitter" begins wonderfully. Reporter Kate Henry is on an airplane flight home with the Toronto Titans, who have a shot to win the American League East division for the first time ever. In this setting, we get to see the players at ease (and somewhat on edge after a road trip) and a female reporter's interaction with them. Gordon does a wonderful job conveying the female reporter's life in a game played only by men (at the major-league level, at least). Gordon also clearly conveys an intimate knowledge of the game without being overbearing. "The Dead Pull Hitter" also delivers the thrill of the penant chase, complete with scoreboard watching.

Soon, though, the team's designated hitter turns up dead. As if that's not enough, murder also claims the life of another player. Kate uses her contacts with the players to delve into the mystery. The mystery aspect of "The Dead Pull Hitter" is rather standard, complete with the police officer as a love interest, a theme rather common, especially in cozy mysteries.

But "The Dead Pull Hitter" is more than a puzzle to solve. It's a wonderfully written novel by a woman with a clear feel for the game. Gordon does a wonderful job of bringing to the genre a woman in a man's game and in endowing the reporter with an attitude that is a joy to read. As a first effort, "The Dead Pull Hitter" is clearly a winner.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Real Hit!, March 30, 2005
By 
Tania Hutchison (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Dead Pull Hitter (Mass Market Paperback)
This is the first novel in the Kate Henry series and it captured my interest from page one. The main character is well written and the plot moves along at a good pace. Gordon has added a lot of dry wit into the story, which makes it quite an entertaining read.

As a non-fan of baseball, I was glad that I didn't need extensive knowledge of the sport in order to get the full effect of the story. Baseball is part of the story, but Gordon does an excellent job of keeping it enough in the background so as to avoid alienating any non-baseball fans. This book (please excuse me for what I'm about to say...) hits a a home run!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Quick read, January 18, 2004
By 
This review is from: The Dead Pull Hitter (Hardcover)
Nice light combination of baseball and mystery, with an emphasis on baseball. Murder doesn't show up in the first third of the book. Our heroine is a level-headed sportswriter who works to solve the mystery ahead of the police for no particular reason, just to be ornery.
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