Double Play | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert B. Parker
Creator: Robert Forster
Publisher: New Millennium
Category: Book
List Price: $34.95
Buy New: $3.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  50 reviews
Sales Rank: 806490
Format: Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 6
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 1
ISBN: 1590074270
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781590074275
ASIN: 1590074270
Publication Date: April 2004
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Product Description
Robert B. Parker fans have been quick to embrace each addition to his remarkable canon, from the legendary Spenser series to the novels featuring Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall. And his occasional forays into the past-Gunman's Rhapsody, a fresh take on Wyatt Earp, and Poodle Springs, based on a Raymond Chandler story-have dazzled critics and confirmed his place among the greatest writers of this century. With Double Play, he presents us with a book he was literally born to write.
It is 1947, the year Jackie Robinson breaks major-league baseball's color barrier by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers-and changes the world. This is the story of that season, as told through the eyes of a difficult, brooding, and wounded man named Joseph Burke. Burke, a veteran of World War II and a survivor of Guadalcanal, is hired by Brooklyn Dodgers manager Branch Rickey to guard Robinson. While Burke shadows Robinson, a man of tremendous strength and character suddenly thrust into the media spotlight, the bodyguard must also face some hard truths of his own, in a world where the wrong associations can prove fatal.
A brilliant novel about a very real man, Double Play is a triumph: ingeniously crafted, rich with period detail, and re-sounding with the themes familiar to Parker's readers-honor, duty, responsibility, and redemption.
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"Robert B. Parker fans have been quick to embrace each addition to his remarkable canon, from the legendary Spenser series to the novels featuring Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall. And his occasional forays into the past-Gunman's Rhapsody, a fresh take on Wyatt Earp, and Poodle Springs, based on a Raymond Chandler story-have dazzled critics and confirmed his place among the greatest writers of this century. With Double Play, he presents us with a book he was literally born to write. It is 1947, the year Jackie Robinson breaks major-league baseball's color barrier by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers-and changes the world. This is the story of that season, as told through the eyes of a difficult, brooding, and wounded man named Joseph Burke. Burke, a veteran of World War II and a survivor of Guadalcanal, is hired by Brooklyn Dodgers manager Branch Rickey to guard Robinson. While Burke shadows Robinson, a man of tremendous strength and character suddenly thrust into the media spotlight, the bodyguard must also face some hard truths of his own, in a world where the wrong associations can prove fatal. A brilliant novel about a very real man, Double Play is a triumph: ingeniously crafted, rich with period detail, and resounding with the themes familiar to Parker's readers-honor, duty, responsibility, and redemption."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
Gritty thriller of redemption May 27, 2008
I am not an expert on baseball -the sport is not big in my native UK and receives minimal TV exposure .I am pleased to say however ,that despite its being marketed as a baseball themed book it is perfectly possible to enjoy this novel as a taut thriller in its own right without possessing a great knowledge of the sport and its history.If you do possess this interest then it will enhance your appreciation but this is not a prerquisite of enjoyment .
It revolves around the first season in the majors of Jackie Robinson ,the first black player to play in a Major League team .Joseph Burke ,a World war 2 veterran ,wounded on Guadalcanal is hired by the franchise owner to act as bodyguard to Robinson .The book here explores familiar Parker territory -the relationshsip between Robinson and Burke evokes that between Hawk and Spencer in Parker's PI series about Spencer and Burke has many things in common with Spencer.Both are ex boxers ,both are widely read and intelligent men ,both are involved in a relationship with an intelligent if somewhat prickly woman and both are called upon to display above average levels of physical toughness in their jobs.
While the book does delve into the history of the baseball season ,to the extent of publishing box scores of the games Robinson was involved in ,the sport is secondary to the relationship and mutual respect between Robinson and Burke .Most prominence however is given to Burke's relationship with Lauren ,an unsatble woman whose father is a luminarty on the local social scene .This relationship is anathema to her father and to Louis Boucicoult the son of a local mobster who wants her for himself and is not above using enforcers from his father's mob to get his way .Burke must protect not only Robinson but himself as their enemies gather
I learned very little of Robinson as a baseball player -the box scores were as meaningless to me as a "wagon wheel" for a cricket innings would be to the average American -but I did get a sense of him as a person and the pressures he faced as a pioneer in the racial integrataion of sport.The book is best enjoyed as a Parker novel not a baseball novel and the virues of all his books are present -smooth redable prose ,good dialogue and a brisk pace
 A short pop out to right. March 17, 2008
Not a bad book for a bargain pick up but nothing really special here. No real intensity and really no care for the main character. A quick read if that's something your looking for.
Good Look at Baseball and Jackie Robinson December 17, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is 1947 and Jackie Robinson has broken baseball's color barrier, but it has not been easy. The Dodgers decide he needs a bodyguard and they hire World War II Vet Joseph burke to protect him. Burke's wife left him while he was in the hospital recovering from war wounds and since then he hasn't cared much about anything or anyone except his job. Lauren Roach comes closes to stealing his heart, but she's trouble. Burke knows guarding Robinson may be dangerous but he doesn't realize that working with Robinson will change Burke's life in ways he never imagined.
"Double Play" is an enjoyable change from Robert Parker's Spenser series. There are some similarities - the relationship between Burke and Robinson will remind readers of Spenser and Hawk - but the fact that the novel is based on real life events adds a lot to the novel. The book starts off slowly, Robinson isn't introduced until almost halfway through and I didn't find Burke all that interesting a character, but once Robinson is introduced the book picks up. For the most part, Parker does a good job with the historical parts of the novel and the prejudice on both sides is eye opening. However, Parker isn't into deep writing and the book is mostly dialogue driven. Since the book is from Burke's viewpoint, readers do get a sense of what makes him as a character, but he's not a deeply layered character and his relationship with Lauren didn't move me in any particular way. Robinson is not as deep a character, which is a shame because I would have liked to know more about what he was thinking and feeling during that tumultuous first year. Outside of reminiscences by "Bobby" (no doubt Parker himself, and which I could have done without since they don't add to the plot) and some box scores, the baseball aspects of the book are surprisingly thin and I wish they had been better developed.
"Double Play" is a good, if somewhat light read about baseball and Jackie Robinson.
fast flowing hard boiled drama, with real characters November 19, 2007
The idea of fictionalizing a plausible scenario involving real, historical characters makes for a great book, and Parker certainly knows how to write a lively tale. A war hero comes home from WWII, recovering from wounds and a Dear John letter. He gets a job working as a bodyguard for a rich man, protecting his daughter. Then he gets another job to protect Jackie Robinson. Between baseball action, we get a lot of "Spenser-like" hardboiled action involving guts and very little extraneous talk. Any fan of the Spenser series will love this book.
 Spenser And Hawk's Excellent Adventure July 15, 2007
I was looking forward to this novel because whenever Parker gets away from his formulaic Spenser novels, he is one damn, fine writer! Picking up Double Play, I was thinking of his Love And Glory which is an excellent novel about romance during WWII. I was expecting another entertaining period piece although on a different subject. What I got instead was Spenser and Hawk transported back in time into the bodies of Jackie Robinson and his bodyguard. They speak in the same stunted shorthand, are both too tough and irresistable to the ladies... very, very familiar ground. Place this one in the modern day, switch Robinson's and his bodyguard's dialog, and you've got a Spenser novel. That's all well and good if you're in the mood for a Spenser novel, but I was hoping for something more. Now I'm not knocking Parker's long-running series. I read them for the dialog, which can be witty and is always well-paced. But the Spenser series is overrated in my mind and certainly is not a worthy successor to the Hammett/Chandler/Spillane tradition. The early ones are very good, but the current ones are very thin. And so is Double Play. Instead of a captivating trip back in time, we get a superficial Spenser novel with different names for the characters. This is a waste of material and potential, leaving this reader disappointed. So if you love Spenser no matter how he is dished up, then Double Play is for you. If you're looking for more, look elsewhere.
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