Product Description
From Booklist
What is a baby - lightly drugged but otherwise healthy - doing abandoned in the players' chapel at Boston's Fenway Park? Meanwhile, the girlfriend of a player on the Red Sox's Portland, Maine, farm team is found beaten and drowned in Boston. Rocky Patel, a Boston PD homicide detective, catches both cases and quickly pieces together the connections between the two cases. But as good as Patel is, there's a blogger out there who always seems just a half step ahead of him and ultimately may be critical to solving the case. Baseball fans (citizens of Red Sox Nation in particular) will enjoy this one thoroughly. The authors use real players as characters and incorporate the best aspects of their public personas into the story. The plot unfolds intelligently, and Rocky Patel is a good guide through the proceedings. A solid contribution to the growing subgenre of baseball mysteries. Lukowsky, Wes.
An abandoned baby is found in the clubhouse at Fenway Park. The nurses at Deaconess name him Ted Williams, what else? A promising minor league pitcher goes missing. A player agent is caught up in a web of blackmail. A woman's body turns up in the Back Bay fens. Enter Rocky Patel, Boston Homicide Detective First Grade, ordered to connect the dots. And joining him out of left field, an anonymous blogger who knows too much.
Product Details
| Publisher | Hall of Fame Press |
| ISBN | 0977624021 |
| Format | Hardcover |
| Author | Mary-Ann Tirone Smith,Jere Smith |
| EAN | 9780977624027 |
| Label | Hall of Fame Press |
| Edition | 1St Edition |
| Dewey Decimal Number | 813.54 |
| Studio | Hall of Fame Press |
| Number Of Pages | 245 |
| Title | Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery |
| Publication Date | 2008-10-12 |
| Manufacturer | Hall of Fame Press |
Customer Reviews
Red Sox in a good mystery - who could ask for more!Review by P. Manzaro, 2010-01-20
OK, I am a big Red Sox fan. It was great fun to have the 2007 Red Sox team as part of the mystery - I enjoyed the glimpses of real-life personalities. However, the detective Rocky Patel and his partner Marty made this mystery more than just another mystery that everyone reads because the Red Sox are in it. This is a good mystery with characters that you care about. I would like to see the further adventures of Rocky and Marty, with or without the Red Sox.
Red Sox, Murder, and Heart
Review by S. Agusto-Cox, 2009-08-13
Mary-Ann Tirone Smith and Jere Smith's Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery is a unique murder mystery set against the backdrop of the 2007 Red Sox summer season. Fan favorites from Jason Veritek to David "Big Papi" Ortiz play minor to significant roles in uncovering the truth behind the death of Cinthia Sanchez, the abandonment of her child Arturo Sanchez (also known as Baby Ted Williams), and the Pestano Pipeline of illegal Cuban players making their way into Major League Baseball.
Red Sox fans will love this novel, and those who read mysteries will enjoy this police procedural as well. Readers could take a few chapters to get into the novel with its story followed by blog posts and comments. What Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery has that many other mystery novels don't is a true feel for the city of Boston, Fenway, its fans, and the team. Smith and Smith are third and fourth generation Red Sox fans, and their knowledge shines through in every page as readers journey with Boston Police Detective Rocky Patel and Sargeant Marty Flanagan from Boston to Los Angeles to Florida and beyond.
Boston Police Detective Rocky Patel and Sargeant Marty Flanagan have different religions and methods, but each is dedicated to the job and justice. Beyond the mystery and the Red Sox trivia, Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery uncovers the fear immigrants have of law enforcement authorities at the same time they struggle with the frustration of desiring justice from the same authorities. Overall, Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery is a well crafted mystery, but readers may want a little more substance in terms of what motivates these characters, particularly those from immigrant families, to overcome their fears and join law enforcement.
"Who the hell is this guy? How did he know about this baby before we did?"
Review by Mary Whipple, 2009-01-17
Filled with all the pizzazz and color one would expect of any mystery involving Red Sox players from Boston's 2007 World Series-winning team, Dirty Water is sure to keep Boston fans smiling as they get inside peeks of the lives and personalities of their favorite baseball stars. At the same time, however, they will become caught up in a murder mystery involving seedy superagents and criminal elements operating between Florida and Caribbean islands--in addition to the search for the parents of a one-month-old baby abandoned inside the Red Sox clubhouse.
In the first dozen pages alone, the reader meets Joe Cochran (clubhouse manager), Terry Francona (the manager, known as Tito), Manny Ramirez (who won't play unless he has his special aftershave), fleet-footed Jacoby Ellsbury (who is still learning how to handle caroms off the Green Monster), knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (and his special catcher Doug Mirabelli), pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima (who are learning Spanish faster than they are learning English), and "Big Papi" himself, David Ortiz (whose red Mercedes with a hand-made engine goes from zero to sixty in less than four seconds).
With Captain Jason Varitek riding escort, the abandoned baby is taken to the hospital, where he is named "Ted Williams" by the nurses. The rabid Boston press gets wind of the story from a young blogger named Jay, whose inside information about clubhouse life is suspicious, and when the murdered body of Baby Ted's mother is found in the Back Bay fens, Boston Homicide Detective 1st Grade Rocky Patel, a brilliant investigator and former boxer, is assigned to the case. The complex investigation soon expands throughout the country, and Rocky must draw on his connections with FBI agent Poppy Rice, with whom he has previously worked, to gain information that may prevent another murder. Filled with more unexpected twists and turns than most novels contain in twice the number of pages, Dirty Water explores the plight of young ballplayers and their vulnerability to promises made by the unscrupulous.
Authors Mary-Ann Tirone Smith and her Red Sox blogger son Jere have created a mystery here which will delight Boston Red Sox fans with its peeks inside the Red Sox clubhouse and its insights into the players and their relationships. The Fenway neighborhood, with all its funky charm, its lively residential community, and its endless places of interest comes alive, even for those who may have not spent most of their lives visiting Fenway over and over again, hoping for The Curse to end. For Red Sox fans, this mystery is great fun--an entertaining way to pass frigid winter nights while "waiting till next year" and another World Championship. n Mary Whipple
Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery
Review by Nora Imprescia, 2009-01-13
I just finished reading "Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery," written by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, and her son Jere Smith. The story begins with an abandoned baby being found in the Red Sox clubhouse and quickly moves on to murder, corruption and kidnapping, all against the backdrop of the 2007 World Series. Two seemingly unrelated events - the baby and the story of a Dominican baseball player - are tied together by coincidence and the writings of a mysterious blogger, who often times has information well ahead of the police. The detective, Rocky Patel; his partner, Marty Flanagan; the Boston Police force; the FBI; the blogger, named Jay; and the Boston Red Sox all team up to tell the story, each delivering a piece of the puzzle along the way.
The narrative, written by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, takes you up and down the streets of downtown Boston, in and around Fenway Park. She describes the area as well as, if not better than, most native Bostonians could. The story she weaves draws you in and makes putting the book down nearly impossible. Her characters come to life with rich backgrounds and descriptive dialog. ("If he keeps bitin' his nails like he's doin', he'll end up lookin' like Venus de Milo.")
Every chapter ends with a blog post from Jay, written by Jere Smith, who writes the real-life Red Sox blog, A Red Sox Fan From Pinstripe Territory. Jay's blog mirrors Jere's real-life blog, with descriptive game details, witty observations and baseball facts that can only be gleaned from a person who has studied baseball hard enough to have a doctorate in the sport. Many of the fans and readers of a Red Sox Fan from Pinstripe Territory make a cameo appearance in the fictional blog, The Number One Place.
"Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery" is a great summer read for baseball fans and mystery lovers alike.
Twisty plot
Review by Margaret J. Koehler, 2009-01-06
My son in law read this book in one sitting. He is a hugh Red Sox fan and loved it...
