With March Madness in full swing, I thought I’d celebrate today’s FFB with a quirky mystery collection: Murder at the Foul Line. Mixing basketball and murder, these stories deliver a variety of thrills. I liked Lawrence Block’s “Keller’s Double Dribble,” a story about Block’s lethal hit-man. George Pelecanos’ “String Music” captures the essence of the sport. If you’re a basketball fan who likes mysteries or a mystery fan who likes basketball, Murder at the Foul Line has a line-up that can’t be beat.
Table of Contents:
Introduction / Otto Penzler
Keller’s double dribble / Lawrence Block
Nothing but net / Jeffery Deaver
Bank shots / Sue DeNymme
The taste of silver / Brendan DuBois
Fear of failure / Parnell Hall
Cat’s paw / Laurie B. King
Mrs. Cash / Mike Lupica
White trash noir / Michael Malone
Galahad, inc. / Joan H. Parker and Robert B. Parker
String music / George Pelecanos
Mamzer / R. D. Rosen
Shots / S.J. Rozen
In the zone / Justin Scott
Bubba / Stephen Solomita.
The only novel I’ve read that combined mystery and basketball was PLAYMATES, one in the Spenser series that I remember quite enjoying – it was the first time I’d heard the expression ‘shaving points’ which is certainly distinctive – hard to imagine this is such a well developed sub-genre – thanks George, amazing really.
Sergio, I was surprised to find MURDER AT THE FOUL LINE. Otto Penzler edited a series of sports mystery collections:
Murder on the Ropes (2001)
Murder in the Rough (2006)
Murder at the Racetrack (2006)
Murder at the Foul Line (2006)
Murder is My Racquet (2005)
I don’t watch basketball or keep up with it. Just never developed an interest.
Bill, I watch MARCH MADNESS and that’s about it for my interest in basketball. But all my students are into the NBA Big Time.
The NBA is boring, most of the time, the last couple of minutes decides most games. But college hoops, in the NCAA tournament, can be fun. We watched a couple of games yesterday, the endings are often exciting. As for this book, I read it back when, but don’t remember it being good or bad.
Rick, as with most of these anthologies the quality of the stories varies. But Otto Penzler collections usually have pretty good quality control.
I’ll have to check my list when I get home because I was almost sure I’d read this one but the titles aren’t all that familiar. Otto’s anthologies are usually worth reading.
Jeff, Otto’s sports/mystery anthologies are well worth reading.