Five O'Clock Lightning: A Novel About Baseball, Politics, and Murder

By: William L. DeAndrea

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Synopsis: A onetime baseball catcher confronts the murder of a McCarthyist politician at Yankee StadiumIn 1953 America, McCarthyism is everywhere. Congressman Rex Harwood Simmons is among the leaders who single-mindedly hunt down suspected Communists; he even claims that Communism has infiltrated America&’s favorite pastime. But while watching a Yankee game one afternoon, he becomes a target. As the crowd cheers for a homerun, Simmons is shot dead in his seat. The task of solving the crime falls to onetime ballplayer and Korean War veteran Russ Garrett, who collaborates with &“Vicious Aloysius&” Murphy, a Bronx homicide detective. The investigation won&’t be easy, since there are plenty of people with a motive to plug Simmons. Several clues point to a blacklisted intellectual—but he was driven to suicide years ago. And as Garrett hunts for the killer, a new conspiracy comes to light: a plot to murder Yankee star Mickey Mantle.