Read Murder Is My Racquet Online
Authors: Otto Penzler
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Murder Is My Racquet
This book is a work of fiction. Certain real locations and public figures are mentioned to make the stories more vivid, but all other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously.
Compilation copyright © 2005 by Otto Penzler • Introduction copyright © 2005 by Otto Penzler • “Terrible Tommy Terhune” copyright © 2005 by Lawrence Block • “Tennis, Anyone?” copyright © 2005 by Kinky Friedman • “Six Love” copyright © 2005 by James W. Hall • “Promise” copyright © 2005 by John Harvey • “A Debt to the Devil” copyright © 2005 by Jeremiah Healy • “Stephen Longacre’s Greatest Match” copyright © 2005 by Stephen Hunter • “No Strings” copyright © 2005 by Judith Kelman • “A Killer Overhead” copyright © 2005 by Robert Leuci • “Needle Match” copyright © 2005 by Peter Lovesey • “The Rematch” copyright © 2005 by Mike Lupica • “Continental Grip” copyright © 2005 by David Morrell • “Close Shave” copyright © 2005 by Ridley Pearson • “Love Match” copyright © 2005 by Lisa Scottoline • “A Peach of a Shot” copyright © 2005 by Daniel Stashower
All rights reserved.
Grand Central Publishing
Hachette Book Group
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New York, NY 10017
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Originally published in hardcover by Mysterious Press
The Grand Central Publishing name and logo are registered trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
First eBook Edition: November 2009
ISBN: 978-0-446-56954-5
For Thomas H. Cook
A truly wonderful writer—
and an even better friend
Contents
S
TEPHEN
L
ONGACRE’S
G
REATEST
M
ATCH
T
ennis. Now there’s a word that conjures the height of genteel sportsmanship. Fresh white clothes, lemonade, polite tapping of hands together, the occasional “well played” acknowledgment.
Look a little closer, however, and the nasty underside of tennis, with its many connections to crime and violence, readily rises to the surface. The very name itself, tennis, is probably derived from the French word “tenez,” which means “take it.” No niceties here of accept it, or earn it, or try for it. No, the flat out felonious “take it” is unambiguous in its directive. And the criminal and murderous connections do not end there. The implicit violence of terms like “overhead smash” and “killer serve” are far removed from the gentle lawn game of softer imaginations.
The violence of the game is not limited to its terminology. Players are coached to rebuff a charge to the net by smashing the ball directly at the opponent, resulting in more than one black-and-blue mark, if not worse.
And check out old tapes of John McEnroe and his blood
rage, directed mainly at umpires and linesmen but also at opponents. Yet those actions, when seen from the perspective of today, seem modulated compared with some of the younger thugs who had the door opened for them by the boorish McEnroe (who, admittedly, now seems to be somewhat embarrassed by his out-of-control actions).
Also recall Jennifer Capriati being busted on drug charges, and the parental abuse of Mary Pierce’s father, who needed a court order to stop him from terrorizing his daughter. And let’s not forget the fanatic who rooted so enthusiastically for Steffi Graf that he attacked her greatest rival, Monica Seles, stabbing her in the back during a match.
No, tennis is not all about gentility—a fact amply illustrated on the following pages. Here, some of the giants of the mystery genre have brought their murderous intentions to center court.
There’s murder, of course, some of it not terribly genteel at all. You’ll encounter blackmail, voodoo, insanity, and clever scams. You’ll see that human behavior doesn’t vary that much, whether it’s on the pro tour, at the country club, or on a public court.
Whether the action is centered on a top-ranked player, a hopeless pitty-pat struggler, or a ball boy, there are always secrets to keep and mysteries to unravel. And who better to create these mysteries (and solve them) than a gathering of some of the world’s top-ranked crime writers?
Lawrence Block has received the highest honor bestowed by the Mystery Writers of America: the Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement. He is also a multiple award winner in both the best novel and best short story categories. The versatile and prolific Block has produced more than fifty novels and
short story collections, most notably about his tough private eye, Matt Scudder, his comedic bookseller/burglar, Bernie Rhodenbarr, and his amoral hit man, Keller.
Kinky Friedman has had more than one career. He began as an outrageous country and western singer, leading a group called Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys. Although the group remained successful, he turned his hand to writing hilarious novels of crime and murder starring no less formidable a light than Kinky himself. He also once ran for a local office in Texas as a Republican in a district that was, he reports, 98 percent Democratic. He lost.
James W. Hall began his writing career as a poet but switched to the mystery genre, creating one of Florida’s most memorable characters in Thorn, the hero of most of his best-selling novels. Hall has been hailed by the
San Francisco Chronicle
as “brilliant” and by
Newsweek
as “a poet.” His most recent short story, “Crack,” was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award.
John Harvey is one of the best of England’s new breed of gritty noir writers whose ten Charlie Resnick novels have been lavishly (and justly) praised. Elmore Leonard has compared him to Graham Greene; Jim Harrison has likened him to James Lee Burke and Elmore Leonard; the
London Times
has called him “The King of Crime,” and the
Denver Post
stated unequivocally that “Harvey writes better crime novels than anybody else in the world.”
Jeremiah Healy, creator of the Boston-based private eye John Francis Cuddy, has been nominated for six Shamus Awards by the Private Eye Writers of America, winning the Best Novel Award for
The Staked Goat
. Two of his short stories have been selected for the prestigious
Best American Mystery Stories of the Year
.
Stephen Hunter has become a perennial name on the bestseller list with such gritty thrillers as
Hot Springs, Time to Hunt, Point of Impact
, and
Dirty White Boys
. His sometimes shocking adventures of “Bob the Nailer” (and if you haven’t already, read the books so you can learn how he got the name!) have been applauded by Robert Ludlum (“breathtaking, fascinating”), John Sandford (“Stephen Hunter is Elmore Leonard on steroids”), and Nelson DeMille (“Stephen Hunter is in a class by himself”).
Judith Kelman is the best-selling author of thirteen novels of psychological suspense, including
Summer of Storms, After the Fall, Fly Away Home
, and
More Than You Know
, which have been praised by such masters of the genre as Mary Higgins Clark (“Judith Kelman gets better all the time!”), Dean Koontz (“swift, suspenseful, highly entertaining”), and Susan Isaacs (“riveting… loaded with suspense, smart characters, and wonderfully acute observations”).
Robert Leuci was a detective with the New York City Police Department for more than twenty years and served as the subject of Robert Daley’s best-selling
Prince of the City
and the motion picture made from it. He is the author of terrifically realistic police novels, including
The Snitch
and
The Blaze
, of whom Nicholas Pileggi, author of
Wiseguys
, has said, “In the writings of the world of cops and the mob, there is no more authentic voice than Bob Leuci’s.”
Peter Lovesey capped a brilliant career by winning the British Crime Writers Association’s highest honor, the Carder Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement. He began writing in 1970 with
Wobble to Death
, introducing Sergeant Cribb, who appeared in seven more novels and two television series (seen in the U.S. on PBS’s
Mystery!
).
Mike Lupica is one of the most talented and honored sportswriters in America. His controversial columns and articles in the
New York Daily News, Esquire
, and other publications have helped make him a household name. His weekly appearance on the television series
The Sports Reporters
has further enhanced his reputation at the top of his field. He has written several mystery novels about Peter Finley, the first of which,
Dead Air
, was nominated for an Edgar and then filmed for CBS as
Money, Power and Murder
.
David Morrell, although a consistent best-seller for nearly twenty years with such novels as
The League of Night and Fog, The Brotherhood of the Rose, Desperate Measures
, and
Extreme Denial
, will always be remembered for having created an American icon, Rambo, in his novel
First Blood
. More than 12 million copies of his novels are in print in the United States.
Ridley Pearson won the American Library Association’s Best Fiction Award in 1994 for
No Witnesses
. He has been a best-seller ever since with such books as
Beyond Recognition, The Pied Piper, Middle of Nowhere
, and
The First Victim
. He has been translated into more than twenty languages, and his Lou Boldt series is being produced as an A&E original movie.
Lisa Scottoline, called “the female John Grisham” by
People
magazine, has had numerous
New York Times
best-sellers, including
Mistaken Identity, Moment of Truth
, and
The Vendetta Defense
. She won an Edgar Allan Poe Award for her second legal thriller,
Final Appeal
. Her books are regularly used by bar associations to illustrate issues of legal ethics.
Daniel Stashower was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award for his first novel,
The Adventure of the Ectoplasmic Man
, and won the coveted award for
Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle
. In between, he won the Raymond Chandler Ful-bright
Fellowship in Detective and Crime Writing and spent much of his time in Oxford researching his definitive biography.
So these are the players—not seeded, as each of them has a game worth watching. There are hard hitters here, as well as devious ones. Enjoy the smashes and the lobs, but beware these killer writers because
Murder Is Their Racquet
.
—Otto Penzler
L
AWRENCE
B
LOCK
A
s every high school chemistry student knows,” wrote sportswriter Garland Hewes, “the initials TNT stand for tri-nitro-toluene, and the compound so designated is an explosive one indeed. And, as every tennis fan is by now aware, the same initials stand as well for Thomas Norton Terhune, supremely gifted, immensely personable, and, as he showed us once again yesterday on the clay courts of Roland Garros, an unstable and violently explosive mixture if ever there was one, and a grave danger to himself and others.”