Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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