Book Review: Murder at the Foul Line: Original Tales of Hoop Dreams and Deaths from Today's Great Writers

Otto Penzler’s last edited anthology in this vein was MURDER IS MY RACQUET, all about murder in the tennis world. This time around, he is the editor of MURDER AT THE FOUL LINE, a compendium of stories examining murder in the murky world of basketball.

The anthology unites well-known authors such as Lawrence Block, Jeffery Deaver and George Pelecanos, to name but a few. In total, there are fourteen short stories, examining various issues, such as murder, bribery, extortion and illegal gambling. Some tales are deeply entwined in the basketball world, whereas others only use it as a starting point. Take, for example, Laurie R. King’s story, ‘Cat’s Paw’. Here, the main protagonist is a basketball coach, but other than that, the story has little to do with basketball. On the other hand, you have Deaver’s ‘Nothing But Net’, in which he describes a scheme to extort money from a basketball player of seemingly less than average intelligence..

I am not a fan of basketball in the slightest and have only ever seen the briefest of matches, yet this compilation still grabbed my attention. Even in stories where basketball is integral to the plot, I was still able to follow what was going on. It has been said that writing a short story is much more difficult than writing a novel, due to the much greater constraints on length. All the stories in MURDER AT THE FOUL LINE work well on an individual level and the authors have done excellent work in creating stories that are fast, sharp and punchy.

Penzler’s introduction points out that in real life, we are hearing more and more stories of corruption and criminality within the professional basketball world. Various stars have been embroiled in rape cases, spousal violence and much, much more. It serves as a good reminder that although these basketball players may well be stars known throughout the world, they are not above the law. In this anthology, sometimes the criminals are caught, and sometimes they get away with it. MURDER AT THE FOUL LINE is a good collection of short stories that should be on the wish list of any basketball fan.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Luke Croll - RAM