Be the One

by April Smith, Linda Hamilton (Narrated by)

April Smith's first novel, North of Montana, garnered good reviews and marked her as a writer worth watching. In her second thriller, Be the One, she amply fulfills that promise. Cassidy Sanderson is a woman in a man's world: the only female scout in major-league baseball, Cassidy's not only a former star with a women's professional team but also the daughter of a legendary player and the sister of a promising pitcher who died too young. Baseball isn't just in Cassidy's blood, it's her whole life, and even the daily effort of constantly having to prove herself to her bosses in the L.A. Dodgers head office can't wear out her passion for the game.

She's got a great double play going when she goes to the Dominican Republic and finds both a promising young player, Alberto Cruz, and a powerful, sexy American financier, Joe Galinis, who picks her up when the car carrying her and Cruz breaks down. But once she gets Alberto to training camp, the trouble that's followed her all the way from the Caribbean explodes in blackmail, extortion, and violence, with a mysterious vodou twist:

The thing appears to be a Barbancourt rum bottle, you can see the lettering underneath the red cloth in which it has been tightly wrapped. Lashed to the neck with hundreds of turns of black thread are two pairs of scissors, open wide. Dangling off the bottom on multicolored strings is a bizarre fringe of razor blades that flash like silver teeth.

Her partner says, "What is it? Some kind of punk thing?"

"Gang thing?"

Cassidy holds it very carefully. It spooks her in a deeply primitive way. Unlike the whimsical gourd with the belly-button mirror on her mantel, this bizarre construction is definitely broadcasting on an evil wavelength: the shape of the bottle like a human body.

Smith's characters are sharply drawn, and she's firmly in command of her milieu: the day-to-day life of a baseball scout is brilliantly explicated, the pacing is expert, and the back-stories are well told in flashback. Cassidy is a fascinating woman--hard-working, hard-drinking, and wholly human and vulnerable. Even if you're not a baseball fan, you'll root for her to win. --Jane Adams

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Sports, Baseball, Suspense, Mystery

Audio Cassette

First published June 27, 2000

About the author

Here's the down and dirty: grew up in the Bronx, went to college in Boston, graduate school in California, back to Cambridge to write a first failed novel and learn how the world works by writing ad copy,west to Los Angeles in 1976 for a career writing and producing TV, until the writer's strike of 1988 when I wrote my first novel on spec, North of Montana. Two wonderful grown children and the best husband in the world, now of 34 years. Stable enough on the outside but take away swimming, writing, hiking, yakking with girlfriends, pet pooches, chocolate chip cookies (the gooey kind), British TV series and grapefruit Martinis -- well, don't.

Reviews

[Left Coast Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author knows her baseball, so I'm already inclined to admire her (while trying to ignore the fact that she's a Dodgers fan. In San Francisco, where I attend games, vendors sell softshell crab sandwiches and vegetarian stir fry. And garlic fries. LA fans have to make do with 'Dodger Dogs,' which are apparently sun-dried, salt-cured goat rectums* ground into tubes and served on stale Wonder Bread buns with goopy ketchup.)

If you aren't interested in baseball, or about a story of a talented woman trying to dominate in a man's game, this book will likely not interest you. Oh, but the descriptions of the Dominican Republic are worth reading, and there's some interesting family dynamic stuff in there. And let's not forget that she's a crackerjack author and highly skilled storyteller.

*Stole this line from the late Anthony Bourdain. Credit where it's due.

[Maren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read ESPECIALLY when you don't have an expectation of anything to come - wow - fun read

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read a ton of thrillers, but from what I've read, it seemed this one was really unique. A Dominican baseball player is not your typical victim, and the heroin no usually a baseball scout. The voodoo played a small part, although it was billed as primary. The characters were interesting, and you wanted the good guys to succeed. It was evident pretty early who the bad guys were, but the description of life in the D.R. was spot on and something you don't read about every day. It was a long book, 420 pages, and kept me interested clear through the end.

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 2000. The story of the only female baseball scout.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

April Smith is way out in left field on Be the One. Cassidy Sanderson and the whole baseball scout thing seems so unlike her other work. Interesting, yes, but not for me.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read in 2000. I had to rate it a 10 of 10. On my scale that means the author has written a thought provoking book that I will want to read again and that has affected me deeply. This book is a story about a female baseball scout, but so much more. April Smith takes us deep into the world of baseball, the hopes and dreams of young prospects from the Domincan Republic, their struggles to make the majors against the odds, showing the poverty and lifestyle that is so very different. She weaves a tale ripe with suspense and danger and illustrates the political hierarchy and challenges of working in a competitive environment where only the best succeed, and at what cost. Cassidy Sanderson has seen tragedy strike her family and she is an amazing character with a depth not often explored and with choices to make that, as a reader, you are compelled to watch, to wonder and to hope.
April Smith spent some time in the DR researching this book. She mentions in the acknowledgements that it was five years in the making and the many facets of research she undertook. A book of this stature shows what you get when the research is meticulous and careful and in this case we get magnificent results. Some authors have a lot of research and the book has no heart. Some books have heart and the flawed research diminishes the results. Sometimes, rarely, they both come together as with Be The One. The ending, oh the ending. very powerful stuff. Highly recommend.

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started it, then stayed up until 3:30 in the morning to finish it. So this is definitely a page-turner. As a baseball fan, I enjoyed the descriptions of a scouting meeting and of spring training. The author obviously works hard at producing well-crafted prose; once in a while she reaches too far and produces an unintentional oxymoron. Example: when someone is massaging Cassidy's shoulders, they are like granite; she's been working under the kind of pressure that would liquefy stone. As other reviewers have mentioned, there are a couple of loose ends in the narrative (can anyone tell me how Nora knew where to find her father?). Back to Cassidy: if you don't like a heroine with an attitude, who is so driven that she habitually operates way out of bounds, and who has a drinking problem, then you won't like an April Smith book; both Cassidy and Ana, the heroine of North of Montana, April Smith's previous book, fit the description. Plus they are NOT into housekeeping and have pretty bad luck at relationships. Having said that, I'll confess that Cassidy kept coming in and out of focus for me. She seemed to be less sharply drawn than Ana. But even in those patches where Cassidy seems like a shadow, the plot kept me riveted. Do you like baseball? Like thrillers? Read it. [originally posted on Amazon.com]

[grundoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Somewhat of a mystery/thriller wrapped up in the story of a female scout for the Dodgers, or vice versa. A stronger tale on the woman-in-a-man's-world baseball side, the intrigue is marred primarily by the characters who figure most heavily in the resolution... and while I suppose her love life helped define the character, it held no interest. Still, a fine read with unique plotting for a fan of this time of year - rounding up on the feeling that it deserves better average rating than it's seen here.

[Shawn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had enjoyed a couple of the Ana Grey Series and thought I'd give this stand alone a try. It was so hard getting into the book and even harder making myself finish. I had to summon my inner speed reader, and still, it took a long time to get through this book. Lots of extraneous information introduced which I thought had no place in the story line. This is easily one of the worst books I've come across.

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like April Smith but this is not one of her better books. The story is told in flashback after flashback and becomes difficult to follow. I love baseball and that part of the book was fine, but the mystery was not much of a mystery and the thriller was not very thrilling. She has done better and I am sure I will continue to do so in the future.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the female protagonist, who is hard on the outside and soft on the inside, like many women I've met. I enjoyed the milieu of the book--pro baseball and particularly the life of scouts and new baseball prospects. The "mystery" was nothing special but unfolded at a reasonable pace. Now and then the author provided a beautiful description of Southern California.

[Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many good parts, but as a whole it lacked something. Great character development of the protagonist as a trail blazing female scout in a man's world. Good insights into the world of baseball scouting particularly in the Dominican. But the plot and story line fall a little flat at the end.

[Karen]

I like this writer, but I'm not the biggest baseball fan...trying to finish it, I promise~

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once I got into this it was a good story. The characters are well developed and she builds suspense by releasing information through flashbacks.