Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Jere Smith (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Smith (Girls of Tender Age) and son work real-life members of the 2007 Boston Red Sox, most notably David Big Papi Ortiz, into a mystery plot with the adeptness of a successful double steal. The troubles for the team begin with the discovery of an abandoned baby in the Red Sox clubhouse. When a woman's body turns up in a remote area of the fens near Fenway Park, Boston homicide detective Rocky Patel gets on the case, partnered by Sgt. Marty Flanagan. Meanwhile, an unscrupulous agent has been trafficking in Cuban baseball stars. The authors know how to heighten the intrigue, but readers should be prepared for some tiresomely detailed descriptions of street routes and an omniscient narration that compulsively shares incidental thoughts of insignificant characters. Such filler has all the charm of a rain delay in the middle of a tense Sox-Yankees game. 10-city author tour. (Oct. 29)
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Product Description

From Booklist

What is a baby - lightly drugged but otherwise healthy - doing abandoned in the players' chapel at Boston's Fenway Park? Meanwhile, the girlfriend of a player on the Red Sox's Portland, Maine, farm team is found beaten and drowned in Boston. Rocky Patel, a Boston PD homicide detective, catches both cases and quickly pieces together the connections between the two cases. But as good as Patel is, there's a blogger out there who always seems just a half step ahead of him and ultimately may be critical to solving the case. Baseball fans (citizens of Red Sox Nation in particular) will enjoy this one thoroughly. The authors use real players as characters and incorporate the best aspects of their public personas into the story. The plot unfolds intelligently, and Rocky Patel is a good guide through the proceedings. A solid contribution to the growing subgenre of baseball mysteries. Lukowsky, Wes.

An abandoned baby is found in the clubhouse at Fenway Park. The nurses at Deaconess name him Ted Williams, what else? A promising minor league pitcher goes missing. A player agent is caught up in a web of blackmail. A woman's body turns up in the Back Bay fens. Enter Rocky Patel, Boston Homicide Detective First Grade, ordered to connect the dots. And joining him out of left field, an anonymous blogger who knows too much.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 245 pages
• Publisher: Hall of Fame Press (October 12, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977624021
• ISBN-13: 978-0977624027
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #378,387 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars familiar characters, familiar turf; fresh writing, October 22, 2008

By	Susan O'Neill (Andover, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Okay, so if you;re not a red sox fan, or not conversant with the geography of boston, you might not cozy up to this book. but I;m a mad sox fan, as anybody who knows me would attest, and this is a mystery that actually features the sox's 2007 team, and other very nicely-drawn characters--some real, some not. It;s interesting, moves along smartly, and builds to a nail-chewer finish. because it features a couple of murders, including one that comes off as truly sad and unwarranted, and because its characters are flawed everyday Joes who don;t always do the right thing, the reader can;t take comfort early on that everything will come out all right. I like that in my mysteries. the authors did a good job, even if the editor could use a box of commas (sigh. what is it about editors today, even at the big presses? sr. Mary stanislaus, my second-grade teacher, is whirling in her grave...).

Having said this, I apologize for my own erratic capitalization and punctuation here. I;m typing with my right hand in a cast, and I can;t reach the apostrophe or the right-hand shift key. Mea culpa.

anyway, thoroughly enjoyable mystery for any member of red sox nation, and/or anybody who knows and appreciates boston. and a great gift to give someone who fits the above description.

susan O;Neill, sox nut and author: Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Vietnam

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Who the hell is this guy? How did he know about this baby before we did?", January 16, 2009

By	Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Filled with all the pizzazz and color one would expect of any mystery involving Red Sox players from Boston's 2007 World Series-winning team, Dirty Water is sure to keep Boston fans smiling as they get inside peeks of the lives and personalities of their favorite baseball stars. At the same time, however, they will become caught up in a murder mystery involving seedy superagents and criminal elements operating between Florida and Caribbean islands--in addition to the search for the parents of a one-month-old baby abandoned inside the Red Sox clubhouse.

In the first dozen pages alone, the reader meets Joe Cochran (clubhouse manager), Terry Francona (the manager, known as Tito), Manny Ramirez (who won't play unless he has his special aftershave), fleet-footed Jacoby Ellsbury (who is still learning how to handle caroms off the Green Monster), knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (and his special catcher Doug Mirabelli), pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima (who are learning Spanish faster than they are learning English), and "Big Papi" himself, David Ortiz (whose red Mercedes with a hand-made engine goes from zero to sixty in less than four seconds).

With Captain Jason Varitek riding escort, the abandoned baby is taken to the hospital, where he is named "Ted Williams" by the nurses. The rabid Boston press gets wind of the story from a young blogger named Jay, whose inside information about clubhouse life is suspicious, and when the murdered body of Baby Ted's mother is found in the Back Bay fens, Boston Homicide Detective 1st Grade Rocky Patel, a brilliant investigator and former boxer, is assigned to the case. The complex investigation soon expands throughout the country, and Rocky must draw on his connections with FBI agent Poppy Rice, with whom he has previously worked, to gain information that may prevent another murder. Filled with more unexpected twists and turns than most novels contain in twice the number of pages, Dirty Water explores the plight of young ballplayers and their vulnerability to promises made by the unscrupulous.

Authors Mary-Ann Tirone Smith and her Red Sox blogger son Jere have created a mystery here which will delight Boston Red Sox fans with its peeks inside the Red Sox clubhouse and its insights into the players and their relationships. The Fenway neighborhood, with all its funky charm, its lively residential community, and its endless places of interest comes alive, even for those who may have not spent most of their lives visiting Fenway over and over again, hoping for The Curse to end. For Red Sox fans, this mystery is great fun--an entertaining way to pass frigid winter nights while "waiting till next year" and another World Championship. n Mary Whipple

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Red Sox Mystery Well Worth Reading, October 21, 2008

By	Peter M. Naboicheck "collector of entertainment" (FARMINGTON, CT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've already read this book and baseball fan or not, if you like a great mystery, this one's for you! Mysterious goings on in and around the Boston Red Sox clubhouse mix with murder, mayhem and sinister dealings in New England and beyond, all with a baseball background. If you like the Red Sox, you'll love this book. If you just like the game of baseball, you'll STILL love this book. If you don't care about baseball but like a good mystery, the same thing goes, it's simple...BUY THIS BOOK! Enjoy, everyone.