A few weeks ago I featured two stories from Murder at the Foul Line, an anthology of short stories assembled by Otto Penzler with a basketball theme. Since then, I read some stories from Murder in the Rough: Original Tales of Bad Shots, Terrible Lies, and Other Deadly Handicaps from Today's Great Writers. These stories focus on golf. The stories were all published for the first time in this anthology in 2006.
These are a few of my favorite stories so far:
"Welcome to the Real World" by Lawrence Block.
Kramer is a man of routine. When he retires, he established plans for each day of the week, Monday through Friday. Mondays and Thursdays he has a specific exercise routine; Tuesdays he goes to a batting range; and Wednesdays he practices at a shooting range, keeping three of his own guns at the gun club. On Fridays he plays golf, practicing different shots at a driving range for most of the day. He likes his routine and sees no reason to change it, until he gives into some good-natured ribbing from a former co-worker, Bellerman, and actually plays a real game of golf. This story has a slow build-up and a great ending.
"The Man Who Didn't Play Golf" by Simon Brett
Leonard Wensam cheats on his wife, Amanda, with another woman every Thursday. He says he is playing golf at the golf club but instead he is meeting his lover. One week, Amanda accidentally finds out about this arrangement. She meets the club professional, who has never heard of her husband. She then plans her revenge.
"A Good **** Spoiled" by Laura Lippman
This was another variation on a married man using golf as an excuse for being away from home with his mistress. It is very different, humorous, and an excellent story. But I don't want to spoil it by saying any more about the story.
"Unplayable Lies" by William G. Tapply
This was an excellent story, narrated by a young man who often caddies for a member of the Mafia, Big Paulie Mazza. I have never read a book by Tapply but reading this story makes me want to.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed these stories set in the world of golfing, but I think the game of golf, with the setting and the long walks, lends itself to crime stories. There are a lot of mystery novels with a connection to golf. At the end of this book there is a seven page list of golf mysteries.
17 comments:
Three of those authors (Block, Brett, and Lippman) are authors whose work I really like, Tracy, so it's good to see them here. And the stories do sound enjoyable! Glad you liked them.
I'm neither a golfer nor a golf fan. My (mostly unreasonable) prejudice against golf stories matches that of Parcheesi or mumbly peg stories (if such ever existed). The only exception are P. G. Wodehouse's golf stories about The Oldest Member because, although I dislike golf, I am not a total barbarian.
I have MURDER IN THE ROUGH on my READ REAL SOON shelf. I'll have to give it a try soon after reading your fine review.
I was most amused when I tumbled to why Lippman ran a variation on the old line "A Good Walk Spoiled"in re: golf. The tendency of a lot of crime fiction to involve well-off suburbanites does augur well for a lot of cf to have a gold element! Those stories set in inner cities with a golf aspect might be a bit more thin on the ground...
As I said in the post, Margot, I was very surprised to like stories with a golf setting. I have read a good number of books by Block, he usually is a great entertainer. I was a big fan of Simon Brett's Charles Paris series but haven't read much by Laura Lippman.
Jerry, I haven't read anything by P.G. Wodehouse, and I should remedy that. I don't even know where to start though.
George, so far I have liked the stories I have read in this anthology, some more than others. Some of them are pretty long, close to novella length.
That is true, Todd, golf is mostly associated with those who can afford it. Of course, like any type of club, there are many employed by the club who are in lower income groups. It boggles my mind that wives would be fooled by that ruse, unless of course they would just as soon that their husbands were entertained elsewhere.
Laura Lippman's novels are excellent but so too her short stories. My grandson is taking golf lessons this summer. Hard to keep a fifteen year old busy.
Patti, I have only read the first book in Lippman's Tess Monaghan series, and have a few more of those on the shelves. I have two of her standalone books, What the Dead Know, from 2007, and a more recent book, Lady in the Lake. I should read one of those.
It seems to me that playing golf would be a plus, if only for the walking. But it also seems very expensive. And challenging.
I probably have the Block story somewhere in one of his story collections. I do have a different anthology of golf shorts that I haven't read - unsurprisingly - The Putt at the End of the World.
Col, I looked that book up, it does look good, with a variety of authors. If I ever run into that at the book sale I will get it. And failing that, I can probably get it at Abebooks.
During my short time as an editor, I inherited a book cowritten by William Tapply and Linda Barlow called Thicker Than Water. He was so pleasant to work with (she was too but I think he was the primary one I interacted with) and I have always meant to read some of his other books.
Constance, I was checking to see how much his books are on Kindle, and I actually have the first one in the Brady Coyne series, which I have read about. That series started in 1984 (and ended in 2010), and I often like series set in that time... before so much technology.
Hi Tracy,
I think you may enjoy tapping into more William Tapply. He was very highly regarded in New England--first writing in Massachusetts and later in New Hampshire. Ken has enjoyed his novels. I knew his wife via my novel-writing group, back when we lived in the Boston area, before she and Tapply moved to a remote area in New Hampshire and we, shortly thereafter, fled to the Adirondacks. Her fiction was very good, I thought, though I don't recall any published novels.
Ken likes his work.
Best to you!
Judith
Actually, Tracy, I meant to add that we all thought he died much too soon. Such a loss!
Judith, thanks for more information on William Tapply and his books. I have looked at summaries for several of the books in the Brady Coyne series and they all sound interesting. Also the settings. I will definitely give that series a try and check and see what I can find at the annual book sale. You never know when the sale will have a good number of books from an older series like that.
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