The Mighty Johns and Other Stories

by Otto Penzler (Editor), Dennis Lehane, Lawrence Block

The original novella from David Baldacci highlights this collection of football mysteries from the greatest names in suspense. In the title thriller, college football player and physics major, Tor North investigates the mysterious unsolved disappearance of a legendary football hero from his school forty years before. Both his brains and his brawn are tested to the limit when his path leads much closer to home than he could ever have imagined. Titles from Anne Perry, Brad Meltzer, and other all-stars round out this anthology.

Contents:

The Mighty Johns / David Baldacci --
The best of the rest / Otto Penzler --
The Ehrengraf reverse / Lawrence Block --
Semi-pro / James Crumley --
A Sunday in January / Brendan DuBois --
Whatever it takes to win / Tim Green --
Good seats / Colin Harrison --
Gone down to Corpus / Dennis Lehane --
No thing / Mike Lupica --
The empire strikes back / Brad Meltzer --
The arcane receiver / Carol O'Connell --
The end of innocence / Anne Perry --
Hollywood spring and axle / Gary Phillips --
Gone to the dawgs / Peter Robinson --
Rumors of gravity / John Westermann.

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

316 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2002

About the author

Otto Penzler is an editor of mystery fiction in the United States, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives.

Otto Penzler founded The Mysteriour Press in 1975 and was the publisher of The Armchair Detective, the Edgar-winning quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, for seventeen years.

Penzler has won two Edgar Awards, for The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection in 1977, and The Lineup in 2010. The Mystery Writers of America awarded him the prestigious Ellery Queen Award in 1994, and the Raven--the group's highest non-writing award--in 2003.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Underwhelming. 4 of 10 stars

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing. First, there were only 3 stories in my audio edition rather than 15, but far worse was the first story, "The Mighty Johns" by David Baldacci who is also the editor, a title that certainly doesn't apply to his own work. It was fully 2/3 of the book & terribly long. The overall mystery was good, but I've never read a more padded piece of crap in my life. It's full of pseudoscientific maundering by a college student who prides himself on being a physicist. Please! If all of that had been cut out, the story would have been only 1/3 of the length & far better for it. 1 star. Skip it.

"The end of innocence" by Anne Perry was very good. Set in an English village just before WWI, it's very poignant. Makes a super point. The preacher says something like "It's not good & evil that gives us trouble, but deciding between evils." So true. 4 stars

"The empire strikes back" by Brad Meltzer was the shortest & the best of the lot. Great ending. Sometimes being a prankster can be dangerous. 4 stars

All the stories were well narrated, but the book overall almost got 1 star. Perry & Meltzer rescued it, but I recommend reading only their stories & do it elsewhere.

[Zack Hester · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Mighty Johns and Other Stories
Rated (_/5)

5/5 • The Mighty Johns - David Baldacci
2/5 • The End of Innocence - Anne Perry
4/5 • The Empire Strikes Back - Brad Meltzer

Loved title story! I'd say it's by far the best sports related short story I've ever come across.
Enjoyed Empire Strikes Back a lot as well, very creative and interesting story.

[Chris Hester · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Mighty Johns and Other Stories Rated (_/5)

4/5 • The Mighty Johns - David Baldacci
1/5 • The End of Innocence - Anne Perry
5/5 • The Empire Strikes Back - Brad Meltzer

[David Rough · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three short books were combined into this volume. The majority of the pages were devoted to David Baldacci football story of mystery and investigation. This adult story included some immorality and adult language, but the unique Baldacci style filled the novel with intrigue and interest. Rugby took the field in the second story written by Anne Perry. Another interesting and unique plot made this short story quite engaging. The final story, The Empire Strikes Back by Brad Metzer, is the shortest of the tales and my least favorite. The idea was another unique one and I appreciated the twists and turns of the plot. This is not a 5-star, raving-mad, top of the list book, but it is still a good read and worth the time if the adult issues are within your tolerance level.

[Tgordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m going to maybe one day read this collection of shorts again because I could not engage with most of them and skipped and fast forwarded threw what may have been great stories! I’m going to put back on my to be read list! The first and the title book was ok for me. It was sorta supernatural so that in itself is not my cup of tea. The second was by an author I love but I was not able to engage....and on and on... so. Just ok mostly for me

[Randy Tramp · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Mighty Johns by David Baldacci
A football mystery. Tor loves physics and uses it to play football. Then he goes into another dimension to solve a murder mystery.

I liked this short story. It was way different from other Baldacci books. If you like physics, this book is for you. If not, you may join all the other 1-star reviewers. I enjoy mind-boggling stories. This one was the mind-bogglingest.

This story messed with my mind. I'll probably be thinking about it for some time. I liked it.

The End of Innocence by Anne Perry
War affects each person differently. What was wrong yesterday, all of a sudden isn't so much today. When a person is faced with a difficult choice because of a threat, how will one react?

This short story raised questions. What would I do if I were in the same predicament as the protagonist? Not sure. How could you really know unless you're right there? Good Read.

The Empire Strikes Back by Brad Meltzer
A few guys try to beat the system by delaying a feed of a live game by a few minutes. Interesting story. Lively characters. Surprising ending. I liked it!

[Tim Gillen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent read, which I found an enjoyable way to occupy my time for a few hours.

Baldacci's book, The Mighty Johns, was good, and very captivating. I did find the protagonist to be rather far-fetched. A Star football player, that really loves science, turns into the model super sleuth? Seems rather unlikely. Scott Brick's version of the audiobook was very well done.

Perry's book, The End of Innocence, was very slow to take off for me, but I did grow to appreciate it. The reading of the audiobook, by Martin Jarvis, was well done.

Meltzer's book, The Empire Strikes Back, was fun loving enough, but could have been told in 1/2 of the time (seemed a bit wordy), and the plot wrap up seemed rather anticlimactic. The reading of the audiobook, by Scott Brick was well done, and he added to the experience.

[Jeni · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are 14 mystery stories with a sports theme with what is basically a forward by Otto Penzler (editor). Even though I’ve enjoyed reading novels or stories by many of these authors, this wasn’t really a good choice of books for me as the sports theme frequently left me cold, but I did enjoy ½ of them which made it worthwhile to read. The best one was Lawrence Block’s The Ehrengraf Reverse. Almost as good were A Sunday in January by Brendan DuBois, and Whatever It Takes to Win by Tim Green. Also, better than average were The Mighty Johns by David Baldacci, Semi-Pro by James Crumley, The Empire Strikes Back by Brad Meltzer, and The End of Innocence by Anne Perry.

[Aewaters · Rating 2 out of 5]

terrible editing. Seriously, there are tons of typos. The book is hard to follow. There is one Baldacci story and the rest are written by other people. I read the other stories first and am very slowly reading the main Baldacci story. While I was reading the other (shorter) stories, I thought they were all bad writters, but the Baldacci one isn't much better and I know I like ALL his books. I think it was a result of a bad editor?

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best of these is the title story, a novella by David Baldacci, a football mystery/ghost story/thriller, every bit as good as his longer novels. The two other stories, each with a sports theme, by Anne Perry (quite touching and thought-provoking) and Brad Meltzer (mostly just for fun), are also first-rate but the Baldacci is definitely best.

Note: the edition I read/listened to, did not contain ALL of the stories listed in this description.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. Ok. These stories only fit together in the barest sense in that they all have some sort of football story together. There are some pretty strong stereotypes about science majors in two of the stories. It isn't clear the authors have actually met one of these science-y people, but they are clear that science-y people think they are better/smarter than everyone else. Audio.

[Atishay · Rating 1 out of 5]

I felt sorry for Baldacci's story sitting there atop the other short stories that didn't make any sense and lead to nowhere. Baldacci's work was nice, though still not as good as his novels. Poor editing and poor selection.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains one Novella and two short stories that are mysteries with a sports theme. The title story by David Baldacci was the one I enjoyed the most but the other two stories, one by Brad Meltzer and one by Ann Perry were also entertaining.

[Jose · Rating 2 out of 5]

One short story... plus two very short ones... Two dealing with American Football one dealing with Rugby... interesting book but I don't think I'll recommend it to anyone unless they are looking to read something short just to get over a short flight or something like that.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most interesting part of the book is the concept itself, a collection of short stories by well-known, popular mystery writers, with the common theme that all involved football. I was disappointed in the main story by Baldacci, and found only 2-3 of the other stories satisfying.

[Michael Delaware · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well written collection of stories. The Might Johns story was a great mix of macabe, and sports. The middle story was a little bit flat in comparison to the first one. The last one I enjoyed the best of all.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Series of decent short stories, of which, the titled short story was the best...ranging from that one, dealing with the disappearance of a college superstar, to a small English village's rugby match on the eve of WWI...writing intriguing short stories is quite an art...I'm always impressed!

[Fred]

2004

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was a bit like a rushed creative writing assignment. It seemed like he made it up as he wrote.

[Susan Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few of the stories are pretty good; some are garbage.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed all of these sports-themed short stories, especially the two that were read by Scott Brick, one of my favorite narrators (I listened to the audiobook, obviously).

[Jonica]

ok. so I didn't actual finish it. maybe some other Time. like when I am in need of bathroom reading. less than one star.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not that great.

[Johna Dorries]

Okay...some stories better than others. Not David Baldacci's best work.

[Neil · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book of three stories. I only made it past the first one.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lost my interest several times.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned during Baldacci's strange and boring story.

[Peg Schwarz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Misc stories with unfinished plots. I guess it's left up to you to decide.

[Cindy B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly entertaining - each of the stories. Recommended.