MURDER AT WRIGLEY FIELD

by Troy Soos ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 3, 1996

Summer, 1918. Anti-German fever runs high, even on the baseball diamond, where Mickey Rawlings is toiling as the Chicago Cubs' second baseman, part of a sweet doubleplay combination that's broken up when rookie shortstop Willie Kaiser, whose name never gets into the papers no matter how slick his glove, is shot in the middle of a Fourth of July maneuver on the field. An accidentally discharged weapon? A moment of krautkilling madness? Wiilie's kid sister Edna Chapman, who's too nice to have much to say for herself, doesn't think so, and neither does Mickey. Moonlighting his way into Willie's old job at Bennett Harrington's Dearborn Fuel Company, and cozying up to Dearborn security guard Curly Neeman's buddies in the Patriotic Knights of Liberty, Mickey convinces himself that Willie's shooting is linked to a fierce struggle for power in the major leagues, and maybe even to a treasonable secret somebody would kill to protect. But how can Mickey--who can't even find his own missing hot-water heater--make a case when everybody he can tie in to Willie's murder ends up dead? Compensating for the subpar mystery, Mickey's third (Murder at Ebbets Field, 1995, etc.) is Soos's quietly effective portrait of wartime Chicago in the throes of painful German-baiting and on the verge of Prohibition.

Pub Date: April 3, 1996

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Kensington

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1996

Categories: FICTION