Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of Glitter of Diamonds by N. J. Lindquist. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
Glitter of Diamonds by N. J. Lindquist
A Manzuik and Ryan Mystery
Murder Will Out Mysteries (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-9685495-9-4 (0968549594)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9685495-9-9 (9780968549599)
Publication Date: May 2007
List Price: $24.95
Synopsis (from the publisher): After Stasey Simon, an outspoken sports talk-show host, asks on-air for a volunteer to knock some sense into the home team’s temperamental new pitcher, Manziuk and Ryan hustle to catch a murderer swinging a lethal bat before the case escalates into an international incident.
Review: Glitter of Diamonds, the second mystery in the Manziuk and Ryan series by N. J. Lindquist, concerns the hopes and dreams, plus the disappointments and heartaches, of a major league baseball team. We learn about the women and men of the sports news media who follow the members of the team, even into the locker rooms to try to get a story. Some write columns in the daily newspaper. Others have sports station talk shows. These people can be brutal.
For those readers who don’t know too much about major league baseball except that it’s a little boy’s game played by men who make an awful lot of money doing it, the author tells us much about these players and their game. There’s an unwritten code: players should be nice guys who are role models and play fair. There are, however, players who are not nice, and who are lousy role models, and who do not play fair. This is a story about one of those players.
The general management of the Toronto Matrix bought and brought from Cuba a player who they thought was a fantastic pitcher – Rico Velasquez. Because of him the team had a good chance to make it all the way to the World Series. But, a murderer has other ideas. He lurks in the Matrix bullpen waiting for Rico and hits him in the back of the head with a baseball bat. This sets the story into action.
Although this reviewer very seldom watches a baseball game, listens to a talk show sportscaster, or ever read anything on the sports page of the newspaper, this book was written in such a way that it's possible for someone like myself to enjoy the story. Ontario police detectives Paul Manziuk and Jacqueline Ryan—he’s the white, seasoned police veteran, while she’s a recently promoted, young, inexperienced black woman— are pushed to the limit to solve this case, plus another murder similar to Rico’s, and two attempted murders. There are stories within stories about the families of some, the romance of others, the jealousy of still others.
Glitter of Diamonds is a book worth reading. N. J. Lindquist is fantastic in telling this story with humor, compassion, and commitment.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Glitter of Diamonds and to Breakthrough Promotions for providing an ARC of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
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