by GP HutchinsonPublish: Mar 15, 2020Series: America's Pastime SeriesSuspenseHistorical Fiction
Book Overview
A 2020 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards Finalist
"Crime fans and baseball fanatics alike will be enthralled by this retro tale of love and revenge...Historically accurate details of pre-regulation baseball and nail-biting suspense will captivate crime and sports fans." -- BookLife Reviews
"[Dead Ba... ll is] a historically based murder mystery with plenty of surprises--and with a beautiful romantic subplot." --Gary Livacari, author of Reflections on the 1919 Black Sox
Hutchinson's engrossing historical baseball thriller, Dead Ball, begins in 1912 when St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Hal Gerecke unleashes a throw he'll regret as long as he lives. Popular Boston Braves hitter Rube Wannamaker evidently never catches sight of the incoming fastball, and the next thing Hal knows, Rube is on the ground, unconscious and bleeding. As succeeding weeks pass, it becomes apparent that the errant pitch has left Rube in a permanent vegetative state.
Gutted by the incident, Hal abandons baseball for married life with spunky Gracie Matthews, but recruiters for the newly formed and supposedly safer Mutual League soon pull him out of retirement. Certain folks, meanwhile--including mysterious baseball newcomer Johnny Wagner--haven't forgotten Hal's fateful fastball. Believing he purposely maimed Rube, they're out for blood, and Hal's life is in serious danger.read more
BIOGRAPHY GP Hutchinson has been a longtime enthusiast of baseball, America's first true national pastime, a game played from coast to coast by the late 1800s. While he enjoys the game as it is played today, his most recent novels are tales of players caught up in life-and-death struggles during the early years of professional... baseball. Steeped in the actual history of the game, as well as societal realities of the times, these stories feature both fictional and actual characters, teams, and leagues.
Hutchinson cut his teeth as an author writing Westerns--stories set on the broad stage of a breathtaking yet daunting land, populated with colorful (if somewhat fanciful) heroes and heroines who overcome frightful odds, almost always at great cost. Texas was his home for a few years, and subsequent visits to states throughout the West only served to deepen his enthusiasm for the region and his appreciation of its people.
In 2015, Hutchinson's first Western novel, "Strong Convictions," won him the Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award for Best First Western of that year, as well as a gold medal from the National Indie Excellence Awards. "Strong Suspicions," the second volume in the Emmett Strong Western series, garnered a gold medal in the 2016 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards. And "Strong Ambitions" took silver in 2017 Readers' Favorite Awards.
Regarding "Strong Convictions," Classic Western film star Alex Cord wrote, "GP Hutchinson has the gift to tell a compelling tale, enlighten you without preaching and keep you on the edge of your seat. He takes you on unexpected trails populated by flesh and blood characters of depth and substance."
A graduate of Louisiana State University and Dallas Theological Seminary, Hutchinson has lived in Costa Rica and Spain. He currently resides in upstate South Carolina with his wife, Carolyn. Besides writing, he enjoys spending time in the mountains and horseback riding whenever the opportunity arises.
Visit his website at gphutchinson.com where you can sign up for e-mail updates and be the first to hear about new releases.read more
