Double Play: A Thriller - Softcover

Praise for Double Play

"A noirish take on the Jackie Robinson story...engrossing...a refreshing change of pace."--Entertainment Weekly

"Told with lean brilliance...The prose and dialogue are clipped, the images cold and dark as anything in 1940s noir, and yet between the lines beats a pulse of heart and hope. Finding out if they exist to be nurtured or snuffed is one reason these pages turn so quickly."--New York Daily News

"Gracefully written...Parker weaves an engaging, fast-paced tale."--USA Today

"Honest and vivid."--Sports Illustrated

"Intelligent crime fiction...A crisp and insistent story line that gets you to the finish in a hurry. Mr. Parker's tight prose style makes Hemingway seem almost blabby by comparison. It will probably help reinforce Mr. Parker's reputation as one of the best crime fiction writers around. And give lots of readers a few hours of pleasure."--The Washington Times

"Robert B. Parker hits a grand slam with his approach to the story of Jackie Robinson. This is a beautiful book, an important novel that helps us remember what it was like for those who fought the good fight in World War II, what racism was like in the bad old days, and a tale of the healing of a broken heart. The writing is like engraving the highest quality crystal; Parker guides the light to show us his levels of meaning."--The Miami Herald

"Superb...Parker, always a clean writer, has never written so spare and tight a book; this should be required reading for all aspiring storytellers. Parker fans will recognize with joy many of the author's lifelong themes (primarily, honor and the redemptive power of love), and in the Burke/Robinson dynamic, echoes of Spenser/Hawk (the PI's black colleague). Here they will treasure the very essence of Parker in a masterful recreation of a turbulent era that's not only a great and gripping crime novel but also one of the most evocative baseball novels ever written."--Publishers Weekly

The Grand Master of mystery offers a richly textured, change-of-pace historical novel set in 1947, the year that Jackie Robinson breaks the major league baseball color barrier by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, as seen through the eyes of Joseph Burke, a World War II veteran and survivor of Guadalcanal, who is hired by Dodgers manager Branch Rickey as Robinson's bodyguard. Reprint.