Five O'Clock Lightning

Rating:
Summary: Baseball themed mystery- unusual
Review: New York City. August, 1953. Congressman Rex Harwood Simmons ( R-Missouri) is shot while watching the Yankees play ball. His murderer escapes, is spotted on the New Jersey Turnpike in a '49 Studebaker and trapped by the police, then escapes again.
There were a lot of people who hated Rex Simmons. He had been a crusader against anything resembling a Communist, a ruiner of men. Convinced that the most sacred of American sports, baseball had been infiltrated, he had founded the Communism -in-Sports sub-committe- the latest development in the Red Scare.
But who was Congressman Simmons' murderer? Russ Garrett, once a Yankee minor leaguer headed for the majors- until a run-in wiht a bullet in Korea - has to find out. So does Al ("Viscious Aloysius") Murphy, Captain, Bronx Homicide. And so does Tad Simmons- Rex's calculating brother and the new Congressman from Missouri- and his secretary Cheryl Tilton, for whom the term "sex-bomb" may have been invented.

William L. DeAndrea , winner of two Edgar awards for his previous mysteries, has once again writte a stunning novel set against a vibrant historical background. Filler with some of the most clever twists and turns a mystery fan will ever encounter, Five O'Clock Lightning is a rich and colorful entertainment from a master storyteller.