First And Ten - Hardcover

Anderson, Douglas A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0517588595 ISBN 13: 9780517588598

Publisher: Crown, 1993

Synopsis

With his teammates being murdered during a players' strike against the NFL, Buffalo Bills player Santa Arkwright becomes involved in a dangerous investigation that not only makes him the prime suspect, but also a primary target

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

It's not bad enough that the Buffalo Bills have lost the last three Super Bowls and had their starting lineup decimated by free agency. Now, in this debut novel, someone is killing off their players. While the NFL is in the throes of a strike, star defensive back Santa ("he came with all the gifts") Arkwright receives a crank letter threatening the lives of 10 teammates if the strike isn't settled. Frustrated by the incompetence of the police as his fellow Bills are variously poisoned, shot and blown up, Arkwright starts some digging of his own. He is drawn into a maelstrom propelled by such forces as a crooked charity that is fronting for a computerized book-making operation, a deranged born-again Christian whose daughter is Santa's drunken ex-girlfriend, a mysterious journalism professor with a plush lifestyle and a physician with a secret past. Along the way, Santa, who likes to paint, finds a nicer girlfriend who happens to own an art gallery. Suitably cynical about the pro football milieu, Anderson moves his story briskly enough to make up for a couple of sloppy red herrings and some minor leaps in plotting logic. A promisingly punchy debut.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

More trouble for the luckless Buffalo Bills: not only are they out on strike with the rest of the league, but their free safety, Santa Arkwright, is getting cryptic notes threatening them with death if they don't get back on the field. After teammate Shrimp Coleman is killed at a fund-raiser for Reading, Inc., an adult literacy project, Santa, on a midnight prowl to the project's headquarters, finds evidence that Josh Nachman, Reading's director, is fronting for a bookmaker anxious to replace his revenues lost to the strike, and it isn't long before the rest of the pieces fall into place. Unfortunately, there are still a hundred pages to go--and though it's fun to watch Santa, hobbled by back surgery, switch girlfriends from one suspect's daughter to another's as he runs rings around the cops trying to nail Josh and his confederates, this brightly written first novel tends to sag before the long-delayed end. Santa's a find, all right--but who's sending in his plays? -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Crown
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0517588595
• ISBN 13: 9780517588598
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 218