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Sore Loser: A Mickey Donovan Mystery
Veteran NYPD detective Mickey Donovan finds his own life in turmoil as he confronts a rebellious daughter, political pressures, and his own attraction to tennis star Ginny Glade, during an investigation into a deranged fan who sets out to eliminate referees and umpires after games. 30,000 first printing.
Hardcover
First published November 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 3, 2025
I got this book as a "blind date" book from a local bookstore.
This book is definitely a product of its time. Written a few years before 9/11, it is a great look into mid-90s literature from an author that seemed to not really know what the 90s were quite about yet. A pre-courser to the "anti-hero" fad, Mickey Donovan is a detective extraordinaire with shady connections, a murky home life, and a cringy alter ego that always seems to put him in the middle of the action. Lots of misplaced references to 90s culture, like he watched an episode of Sally Jesse Raphel where they interviewed way ward teenagers and the effects of rock and roll, using it to color many of the adolescents in the story.
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, is corrupt. The antagonists seem to be given the title because they are a few degrees worse than the protagonists. Which is an interesting character study, if the characters were described a slightly deeper. There is one character that is so cartoonishly evil I had a hard time understanding how they got into power without being found out. While I don't think the author hates women, it is abundant that he suffers from the trope of men not knowing how to write women. For example, there is a portion where two women call each other by their jean size, like a nickname. I put my book down and stared off into space a few times due to these kinds of interactions.
This is a dime store mystery that I affectionately call "dad fiction". Trimmed down, it would make a great SVU episode. I honestly think he wrote to sell as a screenplay.
This book is definitely a product of its time. Written a few years before 9/11, it is a great look into mid-90s literature from an author that seemed to not really know what the 90s were quite about yet. A pre-courser to the "anti-hero" fad, Mickey Donovan is a detective extraordinaire with shady connections, a murky home life, and a cringy alter ego that always seems to put him in the middle of the action. Lots of misplaced references to 90s culture, like he watched an episode of Sally Jesse Raphel where they interviewed way ward teenagers and the effects of rock and roll, using it to color many of the adolescents in the story.
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, is corrupt. The antagonists seem to be given the title because they are a few degrees worse than the protagonists. Which is an interesting character study, if the characters were described a slightly deeper. There is one character that is so cartoonishly evil I had a hard time understanding how they got into power without being found out. While I don't think the author hates women, it is abundant that he suffers from the trope of men not knowing how to write women. For example, there is a portion where two women call each other by their jean size, like a nickname. I put my book down and stared off into space a few times due to these kinds of interactions.
This is a dime store mystery that I affectionately call "dad fiction". Trimmed down, it would make a great SVU episode. I honestly think he wrote to sell as a screenplay.
July 8, 2009
I just grabbed this at the library for the hell of it. McAlary is a NY Daily News columnist who I have always thought of as a middle-shelf Breslin, lots of "as I trudge down these mean streets I think of Erma Rabinowitz and her Kosher popcorn stand and how she was stabbed to death by a Puerto Rican on PCP who was refused treatment by the Reagan administration."
So this was a pleasant surprise, a procedural with what appears at first to be wildly disparate plot elements and a funny conceit:
Somebody is killing the umpires.
Mickey Donovan, the hero, is an uber-inspector for the NYPD who operates with a fine disregard for channels and procedure.
It's a decent tale with some funny stuff.
So this was a pleasant surprise, a procedural with what appears at first to be wildly disparate plot elements and a funny conceit:
Somebody is killing the umpires.
Mickey Donovan, the hero, is an uber-inspector for the NYPD who operates with a fine disregard for channels and procedure.
It's a decent tale with some funny stuff.
Read
December 8, 2012good! cop story
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews