SQUEEZE PLAY
by R. J. Kaiser
Mira - Belles-Lettres, Inc., 2002
ISBN:1-55166-936-6
Reviewed by Pamela White
A squeeze play is a baseball term for a runner trying to score on a bunt, with less than two outs. In Kaiser's novel of the same name nearly every character is racing for safety on a bunt.
Nick Sasso, restauranteur and Yankee fanatic, is finding success, peace and, if not love, at least romance in his New York City life. Things are looking up - his restaurant has been given a glowing reviewing in the New York Post, giving him a chance to live down his disgraceful discharge from the San Francisco police department.
He gets a call from a friend of his family back in California, asking about his brother's financial difficulties. While Nick is thinking about his brother, Joe's, problems, their father has a stroke. Nick has no choice but to return and face his family's problems.
Within hours of returning home, Joe Sasso and Sonny Culp, Joe's lawyer, are shot dead in Sonny's office. And the scrambling begins - Sonny's house is ransacked, Joe's restaurant is broken into. Brother Nick, trying to find answers, is attacked and saved by the quick thinking of Sonny's ex-wife Billy Fox. The line-up of characters is long, but Kaiser's skill at making each one three-dimensional, and decidedly memorable, makes every one important. Elaine Chang is a conniving, money-hungry deal maker. Igor Sakharov is a anxiety-ridden hitman. Billy Fox is a real woman who gives Nick a reason to grow up.
The intrigue takes the reader from New York to San Francisco, from Hong Kong to Myanmar before the murders, Joe's and Sonny's, among others, are solved in a strange, mangled twist of a denoument. Once the mystery is solved, Kaiser does the reader one last favor. He lists the surviving characters and shares where they are headed in their reconstructed lives.
Action marked by violence, Nick Sasso's emotional growth, and political intrigue at the skilled hands of Kaiser promise a great read whether you're a baseball fan or not.
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