Glitter
of Diamonds
A
Manzuik and Ryan Mystery
N.
J. Lindquist
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, Toronto Detective Inspector Paul Manziuk and Detective Constable Jacqueline Ryan hustle to catch a murderer swinging a lethal bat. As the crime threatens to escalate into an international incident, Manziuk draws on his own knowledge of baseball while Ryan tries to understand a game shes never watched.
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
Have you read Glitter of Diamonds? How would you rate it?
Mysteries in this series …
Shaded
Light
Murder Will Out Mysteries (Trade Paperback), June 1905
ISBN-10: 0-9685495-6-X (096854956X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9685495-6-8 (9780968549568)
Glitter of Diamonds
Murder Will Out Mysteries (Hardcover), May 2007
ISBN-10: 0-9685495-9-4 (0968549594)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9685495-9-9 (9780968549599)
Omnimystery
keywords for Glitter of Diamonds
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Location(s) referenced: Toronto,
Ontario.
