Book description
After a second World Championship in four years, the Boston Red Sox
have finally buried the Curse of the Bambinoaor have they? Sox owner
Louis Kenwood receives an extortion note signed aBabe Rutha claiming
that the 2004 World Series was fixedaand demanding million to keep the
information from getting to the press and the Commissioneras office. If
the allegation of a fix becomes public, Kenwood fears irreparable damage
to the value of his franchise and to his legacy as aLucky Louie, a the
man who finally brought a championship to Boston after 86 years. Thus,
the Red Sox turn to private detective Sam Skarda to find out whoas
behind the extortion plot. Kenwood insists that his beautiful executive
assistant Heather Canby accompanyaand monitoraSam on every step of his
investigation. Unsure whom he can trust, Sam follows the clues to the
Los Angeles underworld and then to the slums of Venezuela. Can he
assemble all of the pieces to this puzzle before more lives are lost and
scandal blasts the Red Sox Nation? Green Monster is the second novel in
the Sam Skarda series, following Amen Corner. Baseball fans will
welcome Shefchik's second mystery to feature sports sleuth Sam Skarda
(after 2007's Amen Corner). A claim that the Boston Red Sox' victory in
the 2004 World Series resulted from a fix takes Sam from Minneapolis to
Boston, L. A. and Caracas as he fends off hit men and fights the clock:
he has five days to break the case before Red Sox owner “Lucky” Louie
Kenwood must pay an extortionist million. Otherwise, a confession from
a key St. Louis Cardinal player will reveal the Sox victory to have been
a sham, thereby disgracing-if not destroying-Major League Baseball.
Kenwood's executive assistant, the beautiful and brainy Heather Canby,
helps Sam investigate, while Fenway Park's iconic “Green Monster”
provides the setting for two climactic scenes. Like a pitcher changing
speeds, Shefchik takes enough off his characterizations to avoid
straight-out stereotypes, and he spins a fair simile now and then-a
pitch he should add to his regular repertoire. Rick Shefchik was born
in Duluth, Minn., in 1952 (in the same hospital as Bob Dylan, 11 years
later.) He graduated from Duluth East High School in 1970 and attended
Dartmouth College in Hanover, N. H., where he received a B. A. in
English/Creative Writing. After working in public relations and as a
full-time musician, he began his journalism career at the Duluth News
Tribune in 1978. He moved to the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 1980 as a
television critic, and became a feature writer and columnist in the
1990s, writing a weekly syndicated parenting column for the Knight
Ridder Newswire. He lives in Stillwater, Minn., with his wife and two
children.
