Winter Games: A Mystery [Hardcover]

John Feinstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1995

The author of A Season on the Brink creates a story of intrigue and murder set in cutthroat world of college basketball, where recruiters will do what is necessary to sign a potential Michael Jordan.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sportswriter Feinstein (A Good Walk Spoiled) brings his basketball savvy to this dark portrayal of murder and rampant corruption on the college courts. When burned-out Washington, D.C., reporter Bobby Kelleher seeks rest at his boyhood home on Shelter Island, N.Y., he finds the tiny community abuzz about Rytis Buzelis, a Lithuanian immigrant who could lead his high school to a state championship. Hungry college coaches and sinister sneaker-company flacks descend on the island, angling for a piece of the future superstar. When Kelleher's friend Scott Harrison, an assistant coach at a big-time hoops college, is murdered, Kelleher connects the killing to the Buzelis recruiting frenzy. Joining forces with local reporter Tamara Mearns, Kelleher clashes with Buzelis's controlling father, his alluring supermodel sister, a bombastic sportscaster and masked thugs bent on stopping anyone who upsets their game. Although Feinstein's prose is unexceptional and some characterizations skimpy, his plotting is able and his roundball knowledge makes this effort worthy of a high seed.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

When a talented, teenaged Lithuanian basketball star attracts the attention of a group of college coaches, recently unemployed journalist Bobby Kelleher?himself a former basketball player?recognizes the resulting rivalries. He also eyeballs a certain footwear representative who has a reputation for dirty recruiting. When one of his coach friends is murdered outside the gym, Bobby goes on the offensive, but not without the help of local reporter Tammy. Once past the name dropping, NPR commentator and sports writer Feinstein (A Good Walk Spoiled, LJ 5/15/95) settles nicely into the investigative-journalist-with-potential-romance routine. Recommended.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 277 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T); 1st edition (November 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316277215
• ISBN-13: 978-0316277211
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,075,572 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Feinstein spent years on the staff at the Washington Post, as well as writing for Sports Illustrated and the National Sports Daily. He is a commentator on NPRs "Morning Edition," a regular on ESPNs "The Sports Reporters" and a visiting professor of journalism at Duke University.His first book, A Season on the Brink, is the bestselling sports book of all time. His first book for younger readers, Last Shot, was a bestseller.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good murder mystery based on the over-emphasis of college athletics, February 7, 2010

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Winter Games: A Mystery (Hardcover)

Generally, when sports are described as being a matter of life-and-death, the description is figurative. However, the premise of this book is that someone is making it literal. Reporter Bobby Kelleher moves back to his boyhood home in Shelter Island on Long Island, New York in order to rest up from an ordeal as a political reporter. When he gets there he learns of the sensational high school basketball player Rytis Buzelis that is playing for Shelter Island. Buzelis grew up in Vilnius, Lithuania and only recently blossomed into a first-rate player. He is so good that most of the coaches of top-ranked university basketball programs are scouting him.
One of the coaches is Scott Harrison, a college friend of Kelleher's and they meet at a high school basketball game. There is talk about sleazy activity in the recruitment of Buzelis as well as the actions of some of the dirtier coaches in the NCAA. It quickly moves beyond talk when Scott is shot in the back of the head and killed. Kelleher's goal was to take some time off reporting but the old juices begin flowing again and he starts following the leads.
There are many leads, some of them false yet some that clearly lead somewhere. When Kelleher manages to tape an attempted bribe to get Buzelis to go to a particular school, the thugs come out and threaten him. At first he is able to thwart them, but when they escape, he realizes that he has been lied to. Eventually, he determines the identity of the killers and the reasons for the events.
Although the killers prove to be amateurs, the point is well made. To many, college athletics is an arena of win at all cost and boosters seem more focused on destroying coaches rather than the long-term building of character and pride. Feinstein's understanding of the inside game of NCAA basketball allows him to write a very believable tale about the extremes of recruiting and how cutthroat it can be.