Give This Collection a Sporting Chance
When editor Barb Goffman approached me to see if I’d be interested in a review copy of the new sports themed crime fiction anthology Three Strikes – You’re Dead!, I jokingly told her that I’d only consider it if there was a story featuring ultimate Frisbee. Imagine my surprise when I found out there was one. To be honest, I thought the collection sounded like fun, so I gladly accepted a copy to see what the authors would come up with.
I had expected the stories to focus on the most popular sports, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. Yes, we do have some stories involving baseball, but there’s nothing football or basketball related.
The collection starts out with one of the baseball stories as the hero of a playoff game winds up dead moments after scoring the winning run. We’ve got a bounty hunter who is trying to bring in an ultimate Frisbee player. A college swimming coach is found dead at practice one morning. A woman plans to avenge her brother’s death in the bull riding ring. A biathlete is kidnapped. And a tennis coach finds himself in grave danger.
As you can see, there is a wide variety of sports and stories here. Yes, there were a couple of stories that didn’t quite work for me. The twist was too abrupt, or in one case, I didn’t feel like the story had enough of a twist.
But the majority of them worked well. Since these are short stories, we don’t have the time for complex plots, but the authors still manage to give us some fun stories. Not all the stories involve murder, which is always a nice change of pace for this mystery reader.
As far as I know, all of these characters were created for these stories. There are a couple I wouldn’t mind reading more about. Again, these are short stories, but I felt the characters came to life well, pulling me into each story.
Keep in mind that I'm not the biggest sports fan in the world. I know just a little about many sports out there, but I don't really follow any of them with any regularity. That didn't keep me from enjoying these stories in the slightest.
All told, there are fourteen stories in this collection. Combined, they are roughly the equivalent of a full-length book, so you are getting your money's worth.
We’ve seen crime connected to sports in real life over the years. It’s nice to see it be the focus of this anthology. I’m sure there is a sport for everyone here, so whether you are a diehard sports fan or just looking forward to the Olympics in a few weeks, you’ll be glad you picked up Three Strikes – You’re Dead!
Note: I received a copy of this book.
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