Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Green Monster

Subtitle: A Sam Skarda Mystery

Author: Rick Shefchik

Narrator: William Hughes

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-24-08

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

If the allegation of a fix becomes public, Kenwood fears irreparable damage to the value of his franchise and to his legacy as "Lucky Louie," the man who finally brought a championship to Boston after 86 years. Thus, he turns to private detective Sam Skarda to find out who's behind the extortion plot.

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 puzzle pieces before scandal blasts the Red Sox nation?

Members Reviews:

Saving Red Sox Nation, One Plot Twist at a Time

Rick Shefchik's second Sam Skarda detective novel moves with the taut pace of a good pitcher's duel. Hired by the owner of the Red Sox to investigate a blackmail threat that asserts the 2004 Series was fixed, Shefchik's protagonist quickly finds that few loyalties can be assumed, not only among the bookies and hoods from whom he seeks information, but within the Sox front office for whom he works. Chapter after chapter, Shefchik finds ways to surprise the reader with plot twists and character nuance, along with settings from Marblehead to West Hollywood to Caracas that crackle with rich detail. One chase scene through L.A. is as good as "Bullitt" - just in printed form. A tavern in Southie smells of poorly wiped counters and stale Schaefer's. Shefchik dares the reader to accept the premise that a thrown Series from very recent memory might be possible (don't worry, Sox fans, all characters on the field or in the front office are wholly fictional), and carries it off with a narrative deftly seasoned with baseball lore. My warning: don't crack "Green Monster" on a transcontinental flight when you have brought along work reading to do. If you do, there's a good chance your briefcase will remain unopened underneath the seat in front of you.

An excuse to attach to a Boston Icon

Fenway as everyone knows is a national baseball icon with their left field wall known as the Green Monster. So the idea of a baseball star being involved in mayhem is a thin thread. If you like local scenes, ( which I do) this book might appeal to you. The plot has some merit but while I got a mild kick out this book, not losing any sleep reading it at night. Give it a twirl , you probably will have some fun and wish the Sox luck in repeating their world series win for 2014

compelling story line

Shefchik has done another nice job with Sam. The plot seems at first to require a suspension of disbelief but I think that it doesn't require citizenship in Red Sox Nation to comprehend the possibility of the premise of the story--that a baseball game could be affected by one player's decision to not play his best...Ask most people in Boston about Manny's behaviors and how they affected the Sox...But while the story has baseball in the background Rick has crafted a story with interesting characters from the semi-organized crime world. Nothing complicated here, just a good story with some very interesting twists that offers good entertainment. I can now go back to reading Gertrude Bell's life history to get to sleep faster.

I look forward to the next Sam Skarda story. Will Caroline come back?

Enjoyable

I liked this book. Good mix of baseball and mystery. Didn't give it five stars because the premise is just a bit too unbelievable.