5 stars - "Dead Ball: A Novel of Murder and Passion by GP Hutchinson has it all - baseball, romance, murder, suspense, and history ... if [it] were to be made into a movie, it would skyrocket to the top." —Trudi LoPreto for Readers' Favorite The year is 1912—the height of a period that would come to be known as baseball's Deadball Era. Trick pitches and grimy, spit-stained, scuffed-up baseballs are the order of the day, as is aggressive base running where cleats are too often employed for more than simple traction. In a meaningless late-season game between two bottom-of-the-pack National League teams, talented rookie pitcher Hal Gerecke throws a fastball he will regret as long as he lives. Rube Wannamaker, the popular plate-crowding batter Hal is facing, apparently never catches sight of the incoming pitch and winds up on the ground, unresponsive and bleeding profusely. When Hal refuses to finish the game, his nascent Big League career comes to an abrupt end. Tragic news of the crippling outcome of Hal's pitch breaks quickly, and Hal immediately becomes the target of the vindictive aims of Rube Wannamaker's teammates, friends, and fans. In spite of the threats, it's Hal's concern for the wellbeing of Rube's young wife, not fear, that prompts him to forget baseball and return to the menial job he held before making it as a pro. But not everyone forgets Hal. When a new league—out to correct the more egregious ills of organized baseball—is established a year later, the new league's management eagerly seeks to sign Hal to play. With mixed feelings, he signs. When he returns to the diamond, however, he discovers all too soon the lengths to which his unrelenting enemies will go to ruin him or to see him dead.
Author
Three-Time Winner, Readers' Favorite International Book Awards "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," says Western TV & movie star Alex Cord. Nick Wale of Novel Ideas says, "With great mastery GP Hutchinson paints a West I can see, feel and smell. [He] knows how to write, and he knows instinctively." Hutchinson's first Western novel, "Strong Convictions," won the Western Fictioneers Peacemaker Award for Best First Western of 2015, 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 the 2017 Readers' Favorite Awards. In addition to his interest in the Old West, 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. 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.
