HOT CORNER

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What: “The Mighty Johns”

Author: David Baldacci

Publisher: New Millennium Press

Price: $23.95

“The Mighty Johns” is a 92-page novella in a 316-page hardcover book that also includes 13 other short stories, all mysteries with football used as the backdrop. On the book jacket is this quote attributed to Publisher’s Weekly about David Baldacci’s story: “One of the most remarkable stories ever written.”

Maybe we missed something. It’s not a bad story, but it’s overwritten and hard to follow.

The main character is Tor North, a lineman for the Draven University Mighty Johns who is also a brilliant student of physics. He solves a 40-year-old mystery -- the disappearance of Mighty Johns’ star Herschel Ruggles, who was never seen again after scoring a record-setting touchdown and running on into the locker room.

There are twists to the plot that keep the reader going but Baldacci’s prose tends to be wordy and convoluted. North’s job of blocking on a kickoff return is described this way: “As Newton’s Law of Motion dictated with a majestic certainty, when an object exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first.”

One of the 13 additional short stories, “Whatever It Takes to Win,” is written by Tim Green, a former NFL defensive end and current Fox football commentator who has written several novels. As usual, Green is writing about the NFL’s underbelly. His story involves murder, the mob and stealing electronic play-calling signals.

This is the third New Millennium sports anthology edited by mystery guru Otto Penzler. The first was the baseball-themed “Murderers Row,” followed by the boxing-themed “Murder on the Ropes.”