Triple Play

Jake Hines #1

by Elizabeth Gunn

He lives just outside Minneapolis/St. Paul, where the city meets the prairie, where the winters are long, the men are rugged, and a stubborn detective with a murky past is a little out of place.  But Jake Hines has to worry about more than just fitting there's a serial killer on the loose.

The first victim was found on home plate in a neighborhood park.  The next wore an old softball uniform and an obscene disfigurement.  While Jake, a man who can solve any mystery except that of his own orphaned past, rummages through the dirty laundry of people's lives, a group of high-tech crime busters descends from the big city--thrilled at the chance to dance with a serial psycho.  But even with a beautiful crime-scene photographer providing a major distraction, Jake takes no pleasure from this hunt.  Because this killer is pulling him relentlessly toward one more murder, one more suspect, and one very bitter truth.  .  .  .

Genres: Mystery, Audiobook, Sports, Fiction, Mystery Thriller

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

A one-time innkeeper with a taste for adventure, Elizabeth has been a private pilot, sky diver, SCUBA diver, and liveaboard sailor. Extensive travel in the US, Canada, Mexico and Europe led to a second career as a free-lance travel writer, during which she began writing a series of police procedural mysteries set in southeast Minnesota, where she grew up. Her books contrast the sometimes gritty routine of police work with the idyllic rural scenes around a mid-size city in the upper Midwest.

Reviews

[Alida · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is definitely a police procedural book and not a mystery. The crimes were interesting, the procedural was well-written and I never questioned Gunn's accuracy. The main character was worth following. But at the end, the detective stumbled upon the killers. No suspense, no danger, no tension wondering if he would sort things out in time. I would have rated this higher, but the ending was disappointing.

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book of an excellent police procedural. Jake is a detective in Rutherford, Minnesota. He is of mixed race. He doesn't know is background as he was found in a garbage bin as a baby. He grew up in foster homes. Awaken one night to see about a homicide. The body is found pose at home plate of the city softball park. Jake takes though his steps to find the murderer. He calls for the mobile crime unit and various members of unit employ this expertise.
I have read most of this series and found it great. The violence is only found at the crime scene. The started of romance begins. This romance is followed throughout the series. Various positions of law enforcement personal life is followed in the series.

[Kirsty Darbyshire]

I'm reading this in aid of a new concept on a mailing list. The list usually reads single books and discusses them but it's trying out the idea of reading a whole series at the rate of a book a month and discussing them.

This series didn't really appeal to me at all at first glance though I didn't give it a very long first glance. It's a police procedural set near the twin cities of St Paul and Minneapolis. I was expecting something more cozy but the crime depicted in the first chapter doesn't belong with that expectation.

[The rest of my comments on this book are drawn from the mailing list discussion and contain spoilers]

[On the characters]

I read this a couple of weeks ago and the characters have faded from mymemory pretty fast but on the whole I thought the characters were thinbut well drawn.

In common with book number one in many series I felt this book was anintroduction. I quite liked Jake though I didn't get a good handle onhis character, but that's quite good for a series because I'd like toknow more about him and don't feel that I've been given chapter andverse on his life and there's nothing more to know.

I thought the author did a good job of introducing secondary characterswith a minimum of fuss; I got the idea that there were various differentpeople about without getting overpowered by too many characters. Forexample the trainee girl cop whose name I've forgotten: I knew enoughabout her to make her role in the finale believable but not enough thatI got bored with hearing about her.

I think I prefer it when characters that you only meet twice in a bookaren't fleshed out too fully; sometimes characters can be overdone andthey just seem like thick cardboard cutouts rather than real people. Ithought Gunn introduced a lot of characters, especially Jake'scolleagues, but I didn't feel overwhelmed by them all.

[On the plot]

No, I wasn't particularly satisfied with the plot. I found the wholeserial killer plot to be way too big for the book. In common with_Dreaming of the Bones_ I felt a little cheated by not seeing theconnection to another teenagers disappearance though I think Gunn playeda little fairer than Crombie. From now on I'm going to view any mentionof a missing daughter in a book as a surefire pointer to the motive formurder ;-)

I found the plot a bit contrived, not totally realistic but notcompletely silly either. I think a lot of the shock of the murders waslost due to the book's title. I was expecting three of *something* andthe obvious something was 'murder' when nothing else turned up in athreesome early on in the book. I'm not sure whether the puzzle aspectof the message in the mutilations and photos was a strength or aweakness of the plot. On the one hand it seemed to be the sort of thingthat belonged in a more cozy book and seemed a bit convoluted for arealistic series of murders, but on the other hand it was neatlyexplained and related to the motive for the killings. Althoughcomplicated murders like this don't seem very true to life I thoughtthat Gunn created Andy Dornoch as a revenge murderer with a valid reasonfor setting the scenes up as he did.

I think I was satisfied with the resolution. It wasn't the sort of bookto linger over and mull in your mind afterwards so I didn't pick up onany silly coincidences or dumb things thrown in for effect in thefinale. In summary I thought the plot was complete and well puttogether but that everything happened a little too fast and a little tooneatly. I liked the sparsity with which many of the characters weredrawn but I'd have liked a bit more meat on the plot.

[On setting, pacing, point of view etc.]

The setting could have been pretty much anywhere for me; any satellitetown of any major city. I didn't get a strong sense of what Rutherforditself was like. The most memorable idea of place I got from the bookwere the mentions of the spring after a cold Minnesota winter.

The book seemed too thin to me and the pacing did seem off. I don'tknow if it's justified but I felt the book was all bunched up towardsthe back. I think this is because the title led me to expect threedeaths and I was subconciously expecting to get them out of the way andto then get into the guts of the story whereas the murders were evenlyspread through the book. There seemed to be significant sections of thebook where nothing much happened and Jake lay about in his fishing boatcontemplating his navel to not much avail. There are characters who canget away with this - Sharon McCone could fly her plane for days whilstcontemplating her navel and I'd be deeply engrossed and wouldn't care atall - but Jake hasn't earnt that from me yet.

I think Jake's point of view was the major weak point in this book forme. He seemed a fairly run of the mill cop character. Interestingcertainly, but not outstanding in any sense. I didn't feel he hadanything invested in the outcome of the case. Only at the very end didhe actually face any danger and he was just investigating the casebecause it was his job. I know that that is how it works in the realworld but I felt that the book would have been better if Jake had seemeda little more involved and a little less of a detached observer.

[On what i thought of this as a first book]

It came over to me as a 'first in the series' because of the sketchy background of the main character. Gunn left many things open about his past, I presume this is so that she can fill in the detail later. It also seemed to be an 'author's first book' because I didn't feel it did much to make me care about the characters or about the outcome of the case. I didn't feel much of an emotional response to the victims. I've just looked on the web and it looks like this wasn't her first novel though. As well as several non fiction books she's written two books that sound like non mystery fiction.

I'd hope that the second in the series would bring me closer into the characters and evoke stronger emotions in me.

[Overall]

Overall I thought the book was pretty average. Whilst I enjoyed the book as a whole it wasn't anything special. I think Jake's voice needs developing, he wasn't very memorable to me. Gunn has laid down some intriguing foundations about his mysterious origins and I think once we know more about him he'll become a more memorable character. I felt the author almost wanted him to be nondescript in this book.

If this wasn't a group read then I wouldn't be rushing out to get my hands on _Par Four_

[Cindy Grossi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 3.5 for me. I was expecting less from the self-published feel about the physical copy, but got much more from the content. I picked this because I thought it would have more baseball woven into the story. Even though it did not, I found the author had a good turn of phrase and a decent mystery plotted.

[Gloria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 1997 mystery is dated, but still a good novel. With references to VCRs, 1980s olympian athlete Mary Lou Retton, car phones, etc., it may seem a tad offputting. That said, this is a briefer novel that is quick and easy to read and might be just the ticket.

This was recommended to me by a group of librarians I follow online that just love the series.

Jake Hines is a freshly divorced, biracial detective working long hours in a mid-sized Minnesota town. When more than one death presents, he is the go-to guy for solving crime and boy does he hustle. This is a likable character.

Readers will get a sense of how biracial people are treated (poorly), how little old ladies lean on the police excessively, and how two-bit crooks operate. The actual crimes are rather brutal and it seems like the author could have gone the "cozy" route, or the "thriller" route, and somehow dabbled in both arenas. Probably won't read the entire series, but neither was this a waste of time.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elizabeth Gunn is our designated author for May 2017.

I always like to start at the beginning of a series.

This series is a police procedural, which I usually like.

The first victim is mutilated and placed in a softball uniform on a softball field to be discovered. The details are a bit more graphic than I like.

The police department is well run and the characters are likeable. Everyone they can think of is interviewed and yet another victim is discovered, also mutilated and in a softball uniform on a softball field. The two murders are connected when the missing parts from victim one are found on the body of victim two.

The writing is very straightforward and the plot was challenging. The uncovering of the murderer was a bit out of left field. They pretty much stumbled onto it.

I will continue on to book two as I own copies of these.

[Candace · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main protagonist, Detective Jake Hines, has a quirky, enjoyable sense of humor. The murder scenes are a bit gory, but the kinky weird stuff was done postmortem. I’m a medical person so I found it more interesting than horrifying. No torture, just simple murder to start off with! A grossly fun read. Another find withdrawn and sold from the library.... happily, I have more in the series!

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good series.

I’m enjoying Elizabeth Gunn. Not too much violence or suspense for me. A good story. This one a bit gruesome but I was able to ignore it and keep going. Surprise murderer and situation.

[Kathy KS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jake Hines works a number of related cases dealing with mutilations, and sports! Jake is an officer in a small Minnesota city. The book was a decent read and I'll try the next in the series and see where it goes.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit too gorry for me thanks. The characters were interesting.....just felt it was too graphic for my taste.

[Karen Baadsgaard · Rating 1 out of 5]

didn't read

[Mary E Kilpatrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful!

Jake Hines is fun to follow. Novel is full of great descriptions and fun. Looking forward to this great series!

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining story and great narrator!

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started out promising but fell apart at the end.

[Roseann Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

First book in the Jake Hines Mystery series. I plan on reading all of the series.

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabeth Gunn writes an excellent mystery, as evidenced by her first mystery, Triple Play. Between a gap in publishing, and a gap in my reading, I feel I need to catch up with this series, which means some (more)rereading on my part. I enjoyed revisiting this book that really grabbed me the first time I read it. I like Jake Hines, how he works with his coworkers, and how he works his way through a crime. I look forward to rereading my way through this series, up until McCafferty's Nine, which I'm saving until I catch up.

FYI, Triple Play is out of print, but can probably be found at your local library.

Elizabeth Gunn has started another series, beginning with Cool in Tucson, which I own but haven't read yet. She lives in Tucson, so I see her name around town for author appearances, although my current budget doesn't permit book buying at present.

[Patricia Curren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elizabeth Gunn truly knows how to write a who-dunnit and keep the reader entertained from the very first page until the ending! Set in Minnesota, it perfectly captures the location. And if I didn't know better, I'd think the book was written by a man rather than the grandmotherly Ms. Gunn! She doesn't spare the grisly details of the crimes, but sprinkles elements of humor throughout so that the story doesn't become too-too gruesome.
I'll definitely be checking out more of her books...perhaps one set in Arizona next time.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of the Jake Hines mysteries that take place in Minnesota. All have a game or sport reference in the title; this one is for softball. A mutilated male body is found on the local softball diamond, posed in an old softball uniform. First of all, who is it? Why the uniform & why the mutilation?
Very fast read. Lots of interesting characters & dialogue.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting plot. Two men mutililated and mardered; their bodies placed in locations where they will be discovered easily. No apparent connection between the two. The police detective assigned to the case has to do a lot of digging before he begins to put it together.

[Alyssa Frazee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Accurate re: Minnesota. Pretty typical detective novel. I always appreciate a mystery that will read differently the second time around (i.e. one with at least a few clues). This was not one of those.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great series--captures the niceness of Minnesota quite well; and has great mysteries to resolve.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked this first in the series set in southwestern Minnesota. I'll keep reading more.

[Joe O'Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very Good; Continuing character: Jake Hines (first in series); cop works to solve two mutilation murders, both victims dressed in baseball uniforms and with a picture of the scene pinned to them

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A baseball themed murder for this time of year.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nancy 3 stars; Ron 1 star

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have 't encountered this series before, by this is a very nice start.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: the first victim was found at home plate on the baseball field. The killer left a photo of the crime scene. Jake calls in the Bureau.

[Michele bookloverforever · Rating 2 out of 5]

police procedural and a whiff of romance.

[Al Stoess · Rating 3 out of 5]

First book. Has promise.