R.D. Rosen is Richard Dean Rosen. A comedian, comedic journalist and later television writer. He ended up writing for Saturday Night Live. This is his first novel and it won an Edgar Allen Poe award in 1985 for best first novel.
Strike Three…You’re Dead, other than having a title that is kind of funny, is NOT a comedy in any way. This is a straight up noir-ish murder mystery wherein the average everyday person is thrown into a crime scenario and must survive and in this case, solve the crime.
I’ve been mildly obsessed with finding old sports centered stories lately, especially baseball. I don’t really know much about baseball and haven’t watched it since Pete Rose was the manager of the Reds so I don’t know what all that’s about but it has been very enjoyable and maybe everything doesn’t need to be psychoanalyzed.
Our protagonist, Harvey Blissberg is a seasoned pro who was just picked up by expansion team, the Providence Jewels. I had to look up what an expansion team is. It just means, a new pro team.
He has a pitcher friend on the team that no one else cares for.
One morning he finds pitcher friend’s body floating in the jacuzzi, head cracked open with a baseball bat. I mean, if you’re going to write a baseball murder mystery how could you not have someone get killed with the bat? It was Col Mustard on the third baseline with a Louisville Slugger.
Harvey feels that the killer was someone on the team or associated with the team, managers, owners etc. Also, there is a cheap hood who hangs around the ballpark selling bootleg watches so maybe it’s him? Too obvious for a murder mystery but yeah, what the hell, let’s throw him in the mix also.
Harvey spends the rest of the book playing for the Jewels, losing games and digging into the lives of the people associated with the team. It’s a fun romp through the beaten down world of a losing team. The players have mentally accepted their lot at the bottom while the owners hemorrhage money. My favorite character is this old batting coach who tries to rally everyone all the time. It has a dark humor to it. Like it’s not supposed to be funny, I don’t think, but he comes off as a cheerleader on a sinking ship, water waist high, preaching they can still get out of it.
The mystery aspect was good. I love watching these things unfold and trying to figure it out before the main character. I missed this one though. It feels like a first novel, not to say that that’s a bad thing, I usually find it more endearing but it’s definitely something you can tell. Who the hell wants a slick murder mystery anyway!?
Walker & Company 1984
Review by Nick Anderson
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