by Jane Leavy
First published 2020
New York City, 1920. Babe Ruth sits in his Ansonia Hotel apartment wearing a red satin dressing gown over green and white diamond pajamas. The baseball superstar is enjoying a record season with the Yankees, but trouble follows him everywhere. Rumors swirl that his 1918 World Series victory was fixed. Whispers suggest his silent film "Headin' Home" received funding from Arnold Rothstein's gambling empire. Ruth turns to Speed Cook, a former professional ballplayer who now promotes Negro League baseball and knows the sport's corrupt underbelly. Cook brings in his friend Dr. Jamie Fraser, whose wife Eliza coproduced Ruth's movie. As the trio searches for truth, they discover protecting the reckless Babe from thugs and the new baseball commissioner puts them in mortal danger. Hidden power players control the game, and they play for keeps. Cook, Fraser, and Eliza must navigate a world of molls and toughs, crooked politicians and bootleggers to save Ruth from his enemies and himself.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, crime, baseball
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: corruption, deception, investigation
Setting: Ansonia Hotel, New York City
Period: 1920
248 pages · Paperback · Epublishing Works!