Murder at the Foul Line: Original Tales of Hoop Dreams and Deaths from Today's Great Writers [Paperback]

Otto Penzler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 2006

Refereed by editor Otto Penzler, this anthology collects fourteen, original tales of buzzer-beating suspense and postgame mayhem. "In "Keller's Double Dribble," Lawrence Block tails a clueless hitman with courtside tickets to unplanned bloodshed ... Jeffery Deaver's power guard summons his formidable game instincts to thwart a pack of scammers in "Nothing but Net" ... a flagrant foul and a cruel betrayal send a star player crashing in Mike Lupica's "Mrs. Cash" ... George Pelecanos's "String Music" traces the dangerous escalation of a playground beef ... and in "Galahad, Inc.," by Joan H. Parker and Robert B. Parker, a college prodigy seeks unlikely defensive help against a sorority party sex rap." "Other literary slam-dunk tales ask just how hard a former Olympic medalist will fight to get back his old glory ... what hustle will win you the dunk-or-die prison matchup ... and why the pride of the Knicks will never live to see the playoffs. You'll find all the answers inside these pages from acclaimed storytellers Sue DeNymme, Brendan DuBois, Parnell Hall, Laurie R. King, Michael Malone, R. D. Rosen, S. J. Rozan, Justin Scott, and Stephen Solomita. There's the whistle. Here's the tip-off. Let these great clutch shot-makers put you in the zone."--BOOK JACKET.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As Penzler suggests in the introduction to his latest sports-themed anthology, basketball and crime go together like "ham and eggs" or, more darkly, like "Michael Jackson and little boys." The results, in any event, are always readable. Penzler's choice of contributors is varied and often surprising: sportswriter Mike Lupica is a natural, as is R.D. Rosen, author of the Edgar-winning Harvey Blissberg series about a professional baseball player. But Laurie R. King, author of the Mary Russell series? Her story, "Cat's Paw," is one of the best, about a teacher who coaches a girl's junior high school basketball team, refers to herself as a "twenty-nine-year-old virgin" and has her life shaken up when she almost runs over a cat on the highway. Also strong is George P. Pelecanos's "String Music," in which a streetwise D.C. kid survives the problems of his daily life by playing pickup basketball: "In pickup, see, you can pretty much freestyle, try everything out you been practicing on your own," he tells us, summing up the spirit of this lively volume. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Any mystery compendium comprising 14 original works by an all-star roster including Lawrence Block, Robert B. Parker, and George Pelecanos is destined to be thoroughly enjoyable. Add basketball as the backdrop, and you have a very special collection for sports-minded crime fans. Highlights include Pelecanos' menacing "String Music," in which a game of Washington, D.C., street ball takes a potentially deadly turn. Jeffrey Deaver's "Nothing but Net" is a very clever story in which gamblers try to run a scam on an NBA star but find themselves on the short end of a financial version of basketball's backdoor play. Parker and his wife, Joan, team up for a Nick and Nora Charles-like tale in which a glib husband-and-wife detective team try to clear a young basketball player of sexual--assault charges. Penzler's introduction provides brief professional biographies of the contributors. The writing is uniformly excellent, and the seldom-utilized subject matter is rich with possibilities. The result is a collection to satisfy mystery buffs and hoop fanatics alike. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press (January 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446696315
• ISBN-13: 978-0446696319
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,816,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Average, December 19, 2008

By 

Samuel Levin "loyola64" (Pikesville, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murder at the Foul Line: Original Tales of Hoop Dreams and Deaths from Today's Great Writers (Hardcover)

The Editor of this anthology has assembled a group of very talented suspense witers in this collection of original short stories that are presented here. The stories allegedly center around the sport of basketball and the result is very uneven. The quality of the stories in this collection go from poor to very good. Basketball does play a key role in some of them and is on the outer fringes in many of them. This appears to be a group of stories tht were placed together in a somewhat haphazard manner leading to a product that is most uneven. The introduction by the Editor provides good insight to the writers whose works are being presented as well as a look at the earlier days of the sport.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fine sports mystery anthology, December 27, 2005

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murder at the Foul Line: Original Tales of Hoop Dreams and Deaths from Today's Great Writers (Paperback)

Using real anecdotal examples from headlines over the last two decades Otto Penzler implies that modern day basketball and criminal behavior share the courts. Thus this marriage led to the fourteen short stories that make up the fine MURDER AT THE FOUL LINE. The contributors are a who's who of mystery though some are surprises as the sport link is not evident in their résumés. Each tale is solid with some contributions (those of George Pelecanos and Laurie R. King) being backboard shattering dunks that Chocolate Thunder would have relished adding to his repertoire. Overall a fun steady anthology with no air balls, but few fast break slam dunks; still sports mystery readers will enjoy the compilation as the violations by the protagonists lead to a winning series of shots.

Harriet Klausner