Out of Bounds (Hardscrabble Books-Fiction of New England) [Hardcover]

John Corrigan (Author)

Book Description

Series: Hardscrabble Books-Fiction of New England | Publication Date: October 31, 2006

How far will a golfer in decline go to maintain his family's lifestyle, and why are PGA Tour players who are associated with one equipment manufacturer being killed off? In Out of Bounds, veteran PGA Tour player and reluctant sleuth Jack Austin uncovers some disturbing answers.

Austin has built his career on 300-yard tee shots. But as younger, stronger players enter the game, he finds that the pack is catching up. He's not the only player to feel the heat; his middle-aged friend Hal "Hurricane" McCarthy has been struggling to hold on for several seasons. Lately, however, McCarthy and a few other players have enjoyed significant--even mysterious--improvements in their play. Some are hitting the ball farther than they ever have; in McCarthy's case, the famously hot-headed player now exhibits uncharacteristic calm and control in his putting game. At least one golfer, Richie Barter, is convinced that these improvements are the result of performance-enhancing drug use--and he tells his theory to USA Today. As a new member of the PGA Tour Policy Board, Jack finds himself drawn into one of the worst scandals ever to hit the sport.

Meanwhile, Jack's best friend, Darcy Perkins, a security consultant for the Tour, is slowly recovering from a recent shooting. Depressed, neglecting his family, and fearing for his job, Perkins asks Jack to travel to Chicago on his behalf to follow up on a police investigation into a golfer's death. The official story is that Ron Scott was the victim of a mugging, but both Perkins and an associate on the Chicago force have their doubts. As Jack tries to help his friend, he finds himself drawn into two investigations that may turn out to be linked.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Corrigan's fifth Jack Austin mystery (after 2005's Bad Lie) combines an insider's view of the PGA Tour with a thankfully fictional story of violent crime. Austin has been on the tour for 13 years—long enough for a tournament win and to see the game transformed by improved equipment and the emergence of younger, stronger players. But it's rumored that players are making gains not just through hard work but with performance-enhancing drugs. Jack's best friend, Darcy Perkins, a PGA security consultant who's recuperating in a wheelchair after taking a bullet, calls on Jack for help with legwork as suspected cheaters start to die, landing Jack in the midst of a dangerous controversy. The detailed descriptions of golf shots, equipment and training—plus the pressures of cutthroat competition, lucrative purses and contracts—will satisfy golfers looking for an entertaining mystery. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

We've said before that Corrigan's Jack Austin series is the best of the generally bad lot that constitutes golf-based mysteries. We've also said that Corrigan gets the golf right but occasionally strains to devise a credible mystery plot. The pattern holds here, in the series' fifth installment, but Corrigan continues to creep ever closer to bringing all the elements of his game together at the same time. The premise is tantalizing: Have performance-enhancing drugs (beta-blockers to steady the nerves over 3-foot putts; steroids to add 20 yards off the tee) come to a game defined by its rigorous adherence to fair play? When a confirmed drug user on the PGA Tour is murdered, Austin is on the case, aiding his best friend, a tour security consultant, in the investigation. Steroid use among professional golfers is an incendiary topic, certainly, but Corrigan fails to turn it into a completely believable motive for the string of murders that results. Still, his knowledge of the professional game and his realistic descriptions of tournament play bring a richness of detail that will be more than enough to hold golf fans' interest. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 316 pages
• Publisher: UPNE (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584655852
• ISBN-13: 978-1584655855
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,851,473 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John R. Corrigan was born in Augusta, Maine, in 1970. Along with his wife and three young daughters, he lives at the Pomfret School in Pomfret, Connecticut, where he teaches Advanced Placement English and Mystery Literature, coaches hockey and golf, and may very well be the only mystery writer in America who is also a dorm parent to 15 teenage boys.

John loves teaching and enjoys visiting schools to give readings or run writing workshops. You can reach him at the e-mail address below to schedule a school visit.

A passionate teacher, he understands struggles faced by learning-disabled students. In 1979, prior to many discoveries in the field of learning disabilities, Corrigan was broadly diagnosed as "learning disabled, presumed dyslexic" -- a theme that resonates throughout the Jack Austin series. Corrigan has published poetry, academic papers, feature articles, and more recently short stories (in the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine).

The first Jack Austin novel, CUT SHOT (Sleeping Bear Press, 2001), earned excellent reviews. In 2002, Corrigan signed with the University Press of New England, an honor that made him UPNE's first mystery novelist and produced SNAP HOOK (2004), CENTER CUT (2004), BAD LIE (2005), and OUT OF BOUNDS (2006). The Jack Austin series has been praised for accurately portraying the stresses associated with high-pressure athletics.

A former journalist and freelance writer, he earned a master's of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Texas at El Paso. From 2001-2005, he was a columnist for Golf Today Magazine. Now he writes a weekly blog for Type M For Murder and is currently at work on a new series featuring a female border patrol agent as protagonist.

He is thrilled to be able to offer the Jack Austin series online--all five novels for the price of one hardcover--and always enjoys hearing from readers. You can reach him at [e-mail] or by visiting his Website, JohnRCorrigan.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Timely Topic Well Told, February 21, 2007

By 

John R. Linnell (New Gloucester, ME United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Out of Bounds (Hardscrabble Books-Fiction of New England) (Hardcover)

John Corrigan has come up with an intriguing look inside the world of the PGA Tour (again) and what he sees is troublesome. In this 5th novel involving PGA touring pro, Jack Austin, Corrigan confronts the issue of the use of performance enhancing drugs and the response of the tour's policy makers to the threat it poses.

All of Corrigan's Jack Austin mysteries have a very authentic ring to them and this one is no exception as well as being extremely timely.

Golf courses are getting longer, but so are the players. Is it the equipment? The Ball? The conditioning programs?

Or in some cases, is it something they ingest?

That's the question that is troubling some in this book as events unfold and the mystery deepens. The PGA Tour is not all fairways and greens. In some cases it is danger and death.

This is a well done story which will hold your interest whether you know Tiger Woods from Tony the Tiger or not.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Facinating look at pro-golf and enjoyable characters, March 17, 2007

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Out of Bounds (Hardscrabble Books-Fiction of New England) (Hardcover)

When a pro-golfer accuses another golfer of cheating through drug abuse, Jack Austin gets dragged into the middle of things. For one thing, he's a pro golfer--for another, he's a member of the policy committee, responsible for helping to set the rules that deal with issues like mandatory drug testing. But Austin is badly conflicted--he believes in his game and doesn't want it to be caught by the stigma of drugs--like baseball and other sports. Austin gets involved even more deeply when his friend, who works security for the tour but who was injured in an earlier book asks for his help.

Austin finds himself investigating both performance-enhancing drugs and the mysterious death (an apparent mugging) of another pro golfer. But when more of the golfers responsible for a failed golf venture turn up sick or dead, Austin starts to see hints at a connection between his two problems. Managing to golf well through all of this is a problem, though, especially as Tiger Woods is on a hot streak. Austin's two year waiver after winning a tournament is running out and he must either win again or he'll find himself hanging onto the tour by his fingernails.

Author John R. Corrigan combines a fascinating look at the world of professional golf with interesting characters, nail-biting action on the course, and a nifty mystery. I really enjoyed the way golfer Austin tried to balance his family and his love for his sport, the way he saw the game as a practically zen experience, and the interaction among the golfers, and between golfers and the rest of the world.

You don't need to be a golfer to enjoy OUT OF BOUNDS or the other books in the Jack Austin mystery series, but I suspect that serious golfers will take even more out of this story than will duffers like myself.