HOT CORNER

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What: “Base Hit”

Author: Alan Posner

Publisher: Vantage Press

Price: $22.95

Alan Posner’s “Base Hit” is a smoothly written novel that combines the intricacies of baseball, love and revenge.

The main character, Chris Donovan, is a longtime New York Yankee revered by many as the best player in the game for his knack of hitting the ball where he wants.

Donovan is hit in the head during the American League championship series by Chicago rookie pitcher Don McGinniss, knocked unconscious, and forced to sit out the rest of the postseason, including his first World Series.

Donovan spends his off-season watching videotape of McGinniss’ pitches with hopes of discovering a way to drive a ball up the middle against him in a future at-bat.

Donovan accomplishes his goal on the first crack the following spring, nailing McGinniss in the forehead and killing him.

When a camera catches Donovan smiling at his triumph, Chicago assistant district attorney Robert Kasoff, watching the game from a bar, vows to uncover Donovan’s premeditated malice.

The author does a nice job of detailing the courtroom drama and the trials of McGinniss’ widow, Mary, before and after her husband’s death.