Description:

Amazon.com Review

Nobody raises a ruckus or even a loud voice at the Masters, the prestigious and very proper golf tournament that brings the best players and most ardent fans to Augusta, Georgia, every April. Nobody bashes a player to death with a nine iron and leaves the body in a sandy bunker on the 18th hole, either, except someone did just that to John McCree, whose best friend and fellow golfer, Conner Cross, wasn't playing his best game even before the murder. Three people die, including Jodie McCree--Conner's girl prior to becoming John's wife--before Conner unmasks a killer who'd do anything for a chance at the coveted green jacket of a Masters champion.

Veteran author William Bernhardt, best known for legal thrillers like and , has penned a well-paced mystery with plenty of inside dope and Masters history. It will provide a welcome diversion for golfers who get through the winter by dreaming of the greens and fairways of spring. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Conner Cross, golf pro/first-time sleuth, is a Peck's bad boy whose antics are threatening to get him kicked out of the Masters tournament at Georgia's snooty Augusta National Golf Club in this entertaining if implausible whodunit from veteran Bernhardt (Primary Justice; Murder One; etc.). Cross can't seem to take anything seriously, not even his own game, which is suffering grievously. But when his best friend is found murdered and he's suspected of the crime, Cross takes it very seriously indeed, especially after he learns that the murder weapon was his own nine-iron. He soon teams up with red-haired Lt. Nikki O'Brien of the Augusta P.D., who would rather arrest him than accept his assistance. In the pair's running duel of words, the chemistry Conner and Nikki generate consistently delights. You don't have to be a golfer to appreciate the anecdotes about actual events at past Masters that introduce each section. Bernhardt may resort to a B-movie ending with the real killer trying to evade capture by seizing the heroine around the neck (you just know that sucker's not going to make it out the door), but he's clearly having fun with the genre cliches and so will the reader. Agent, Robert Gottlieb. (Apr. 1) Forecast: Media and bookstore appearances tied into the Masters tournament scheduled for April 8-14 will add yardage to this one.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.