The Plot to Kill Jackie Robinson

by Donald Honig

Convinced that someone is trying to kill Jackie Robinson, just as he is about to make history and break the color barrier in major league baseball, sportswriter Joe Tinker begins an investigation of his own. 10,000 first printing.

Genres: Baseball, Sports

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Donald Martin Honig is a novelist and historian who mostly writes about baseball.

Reviews

[Sean-patrick Burke · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the spring of 1947, an athlete stood in front of thousands of people who either adored him or wanted him dead, and changed the course of American history. That man, Jackie Robinson, didn't ignore the burning racism that had torn the country in half less than a century earlier, but played through it, aware and alert. Author Donald Honig wrote a lean crime story around this honorable nucleus that suffers in comparison. The main plot of the novel (a sportswriter tripping over and discovering the title conspiracy, which is cooked up by a two-dimensional racist with a dead cop brother and a half-black niece) could have reached the big leagues in more capable hands, but like a legless batter it can't quite get home. I actually enjoyed this book, believe it or not, not so much because of what it was, but because of what it reminded me of: good crime fiction and the national pastime. Because of this hunger for something better, I'm putting Don DeLillo's UNDERWORLD and James Ellroy's LA CONFIDENTIAL on my to-read pile.