Murder At Wrigley Field (Mickey Rawlings Baseball Mysteries) [Paperback]

Troy Soos (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mickey Rawlings Baseball Mysteries | Publication Date: April 1, 1997

Starting for the Cubs in war-frenzied 1918 Chicago, star hitter Mickey Rawlings attempts to learn who has been sabotaging the team's efforts and becomes embroiled in a murder investigation after his best friend is killed. Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the summer of 1918, wartime fever grips Chicago, rendering even pretzels and dachshunds verboten. Mickey Rawlings, journeyman second baseman and hero of Soos's last two mysteries (Murder at Fenway Park and Murder at Ebbets Fields) has a new shortstop to work with, Willie Kaiser. With a name like Kaiser, Willie is not the most popular guy in Chicago. On July 4th, while marching in a patriotic parade at Cubs Park (it would not be named Wrigley Field until 1926), Kaiser is fatally shot. Rawlings is determined to find out who did it. Among his suspects are the shortstop who lost his job to Willie; the Patriotic Knights of Liberty, an anti-German vigilante group; and Bennett Harrington, a part owner of the Cubs who would like to be the boss. Learning that Kaiser had worked in Harrington's war plant, Rawlings takes a job there to snoop. His life is endangered by an explosion set up by the plant's security chief, who belongs to the Patriotic Knights. When the security chief's body is found in the Chicago River, Rawlings wonders if he's the next target. Along with a first rate wartime Chicago atmosphere, Soos gives us cameo appearances by such baseball legends as Shoeless Joe Jackson and Bonehead Fred Merkle. Although this tale is slower paced than earlier stories, Rawlings still turns double plays and solves murders with equal grace.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This even-tempered Chicago mystery takes place in 1918, when army enlistments depleted the ranks of the Cubs. With someone capitalizing on anti-German sentiments by sabotaging several Cubs games, part-owner Charles Weeghman asks second baseman Mickey Rawlings to find the guilty party. After his best friend, Willie Kaiser, is murdered in the crowded Cubs ballpark, Rawlings sets out to find the killer. Low-key antics, attention to period detail, and subtle plot interweavings underscore this solid, simple work.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Kensington; Reprint edition (April 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575661551
• ISBN-13: 978-1575661551
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,486,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mickey Rawlings investigates the murder of a Cub teammate., August 21, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Murder At Wrigley Field (Hardcover)

This is the third in the Mickey Rawlings series ("Murder at Fenway Park" and "Murder at Ebbetts Field" precede it). Rawlings, a utility infielder who gets traded more often than baseball cards, again finds himself nearby when a murder is committed. This time it is a fellow Cubs teammate, Willy Kaiser. Willy is Rawlings' friend and he vows to track down the killer. Could it be: 1. A player Willy displaced at shortstop, out to get revenge? 2. Another baseball club owner out to destroy the Cubs? 3. Any one of the many citizens whipped into a frenzy by the anti-war propoganda being spread around the US? The plot gets pretty thick as Mickey teams up with his old newspaper buddy, Landfors, to try to sort out fact from fiction. There are many colorful characters we meet on the way including ballplayers, owners, factory workers, German immigrants, businessmen, and members of an anti-war organization. Mickey is in only slightly less danger than in the earlier books. The real danger seems to be that he'll be cut from the team and forced to travel to Europe to fight for his country. Although I'm not a scholar of the period (1918), the descriptions seem to be accurate enough and some of the characters are not fictional (though their actions are) in order to end more realism to the work.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A world awry and a ripping good baseball story, July 25, 2002

By 

R. Tiedemann "Sunnye" (Bellevue, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murder At Wrigley Field (Mickey Rawlings Baseball Mysteries) (Paperback)

In 1918 Mickey Rawlings, no longer a rookie, plays for the Chicago Cubs in the midst of America's anti-German hysteria during the hot days of World War I. His buddy, rookie Willie Kaiser, tormented by fans and teammates, becomes moody and morose and Mickey worries about him. Meanwhile someone begins a campaign of harassment against the team. He releases smoke bombs, saws bleacher seats so they collapse, and puts pretzels at all concessions stands so the team is vilified in the press for being pro-German. To cap it all off, someone reduces Mickey to cold showers by stealing his hot water heater.

When Charles Weeghmann, builder of the field and President of the Cubs, suspects William Wrigley is the saboteur because he wants to take over the tea, he asks Mickey to investigate. Then, in the midst of the on-field 4th of July celebration, Willie Kaiser dies of a gunshot wound.

If Soos intends to portray the tenor of the times as well as to present a Q story as intriguing as Bobby Thompson's home run, and a character as irresistible as a beer and hot dog (and I'm sure he does),I'd say he's batting at least .450.

The appealing and resourceful Mickey probes at the very source of America's neuroses at a time when the music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven is banned, the director of the Boston Symphony jailed for playing German music, German-Americans are being lynched, and even innocent Dachshunds and German shepherds neglected or killed. But the world will right itself again, and even professional baseball survives the turmoil.

Soos's characters are fully developed and intriguing. His portrait of an earlier America in the throes of war hysteria says a lot to us today. We can take the warning to heart. There are no lectures here, though, just a rousing good tale.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wartime baseball, May 16, 2006

By 

Paul Skinner (Manassas, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder At Wrigley Field (Mickey Rawlings Baseball Mysteries) (Paperback)

This is a fascinating book because it combines the drama of a murder mystery, sabotage, and baseball against a backdrop of American fear of German culture during World War I. I found the social commentary fascinating, and wondered about the accuracy of the times. Our hero (Mickey Rawlings) is trying to solve the murder of a teammate with the misfortune of having a German name. He gets involved in a anti-German society that sounds like the Ku Klux Klan, rubbing elbows with some scary hatemongers. He also gets involved with some suspicious baseball team owners. When other bodies start to fall, the mystery deepens. Throughout it all, Mickey is struggling with his patriotic duty versus his love for the game of baseball.

I loved this book.