FFB: Fadeaway

This is the 92nd in my series of seldom read or forgotten books

Fadeaway by Richard Rosen © 1986, Harper & Row 1986 hardcover, first edition, mystery – 2^nd in Harvey Blissberg series

This is the second in Rosen’s  Harvey Blissberg  series of novels featuring the ex-big league center fielder turned amateur (sort of) detective.  I say sort of because he is working under a licensed private detectives license, though he is not licensed himself.

Blissberg gets called by the owners of the Boston Celtics to look into the murder of one of their starting players, who was killed at Logan Airport just before a flight to an away game. Since the player, star forward Tyrone Terrell, is always on time and never in trouble, missing the flight is a surprise. A witness is found who saw him leave the newsstand with a bearded man wearing a leather jacket. It’s the only clue.

The obvious assumption then (and maybe now) was a drug involvement, the Boston Drug team takes the case. But Blissberg doesn’t think it’s a drug-related killing, and looks in other directions. A week later another player, this time a member of the Washington Bullets, disappears in the same airport under the same circumstances. So Blissberg begins to look for connections between the two. There seems to be nothing, but the deeper he digs, the more one possibility seems possible. However his investigation begins to run into roadblocks, including a 6’4″ red-headed fellow with fists the size of hams.

A pretty good mystery, a very enjoyable character, the late winter settings of Boston and Providence provided enough interest, along with the sports milieu, kept me turning the pages. If you haven’t tried Rosen yet and this sounds interesting, I suggest you give this a try.

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The rest of the Friday Forgotten Book posts
can be found at Patti Abbott’s blog Pattinaise