Sunday, May 02, 2004
 
Book Review: Fielder's Choice by Michael Bowen (1991)

This book is supposed to be a whodunit. It's more a WTF?

The book is set in 1962. The backdrop: The end of the Mets' miserable season. During a ballgame in late September, Jerry Fielder, a "businessman" with a shady reputation, is murdered in the pressbox with a number of people nearby. Who could have done it? Who cares?

For starters, the first person narrator is a somewhat minor character, recounting things that happen to other people. It's kind of jarring to try to keep that bit straight. Second, it takes like 70 pages until the murder is committed. Thirdly, it's difficult to keep the suspects straight, much less the investigating characters and the partners and whatnot. Some characters call suspects by their first names, others by their last names, and at by the middle of the book, I gave up trying to keep it straight, instead, I just wanted to get through the book.

Someone did it. Or did someone else? Who knows? The Mets didn't win the pennant that year, and the scorecard for the game in question was the vital clue. A fielder's choice was marked an error. So you see, the title's a pun playing on that, not the character's name! Ha hah! The gimmick got ya!

Ha hah! I paid under a buck for it in hardback, of which the author got what he deserved: nothing!

Excuse me, I am bitter because my own masterpiece has not yet been published, and it only takes fifty pages to get interesting. Where's the justice, I ask you.

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:47 PM
Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home
 
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."