Sherry Drobner enthusiastic Bay Area baseball fan shares with us her review of Hanging Curve by Troy Soos. Sherry and her family recently returned from Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame where her daughter Rebekah got to see her mother’s favorite (Sandy Koufax) player’s memorabilia. Thanks, Sherry for the insightful book review.Book Review

Hanging Curve

by

Troy Soos

Kennsington, 1999, 339 pp.

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Genre: Detective/ Mystery

Reviewer: Sherry Drobner

Reviewed: August 14, 2002

“…the unexpected speed of the pitch had me so surprised that I went tumbling on my rear, dropping my bat as I did. A few hoots of delight went up from the colored seats, and a lot of loud grumbling from the white side.”

Mickey Rawlings, a struggling major league player for the St. Louis Browns, keeps the bench warm for most of the games. When asked to be a substitute on a local semi-pro team, Rawlings is eager to take the bat–only one problem. The year is 1922, the city is St. Louis, and Rawlings is risking suspension when he opts to play against the East St. Louis Cubs-a black team. Mickey’s interest in playing the game, particularly against talented players, overrides his concerns for the rules. However, when Rawlings stands at the plate, he finds himself shut out by the opposing team; the runners fly by him as do the pitches. Slip Crawford, star player for the Negro League, strikes him out. Mickey stunned by the speed of the ball, leaves the game wondering how he might bat against Slip some other time. That time never comes. Slip Crawford, the following day, is hanged in the ballpark, a victim of a lynching. Rawlings finds himself in the eye of a racial hurricane, trying to find the killers before new violence erupts.

Author, Troy Soos, writer of historical fiction, uses this plot to explore the insidious Klu Klux Klan activity of the period and exposes many of the injustices associated with segregation in baseball. If you are not interested in social commentary and you are simply a baseball fan, you’ll enjoy the allusions to many of the baseball greats of that period, including Cool Papa Bell.

Readers will also find Rawlings a likable guy with multiple problems. He’s struggling to get bat time and he’s on the simultaneous verge of a marriage and break-up to the same woman. And if this is not enough conflict, Rawlings is confronted with the realities of segregated society as he travels and works with Franklin Aubury, a black attorney. Aubury proves to be the voice of conscience, providing Rawlings with a new lens to view the racially tense and segregated period of 1922.

Troy Soos, author of five other Mickey Rawlings mysteries, provides readers with page turning fiction steeped in historical data. Soos is a serious writer when it comes to facts, basing his story on extensive research including newspapers and archive materials, and interviews with veteran players. Although this is the first book I’ve read by Troy Soos, I plan to read the remaining five mysteries in the Mickey Rawlins series. Check them out at your local library.