Allen Schatz

Allen Schatz has crafted a winner with his novel, Game 7: Dead Ball, book one of his Marshall Connors series of contemporary thrillers. Marshall Connors is a Major League umpire, and when he is inexplicably tabbed to be crew chief for the World Series, people in the know wonder why. Connor’s elevation is a result of actions by shady characters, who have only begun their mayhem. While baseball can be seen as a character, and fans of baseball will find the backdrop of the World Series adds to their enjoyment, one need not be a baseball geek to enjoy this book.

Marshall Connors, while likeable and smart, is not a protagonist in the conventional sense. He has major responsibilities related to his umpiring job and though he is connected to events, he has little ability to control or influence them. Connor’s friend Thomas and an assortment of FBI agents and MLB security types do the heavy lifting in solving a kidnapping and dealing with the bad guy(s). While Connors may not be a typical protagonist, the antagonist is an extremely cunning, dangerous and scary bad guy.

The cast is extensive and the plot intricate. When I set the book down a quarter through to concentrate on more pressing projects, I felt I needed to start again at the beginning in order to get current. However, once back into the book, it was a sharp page turner. I liked the fact that the characters and situations all seemed authentic and required no suspension of belief on the reader’s part.

Allen Schatz tells the story in an unconventional, but effective manner. He lets Connors narrate his part of story in 1st person, but deftly shifts to a 3rd person point of view for the bulk of the story. Such techniques are above the skill level of most inexperienced writers, and I was surprised to learn Dead Ball was his first novel. I look forward to the rest of the Marshall Connors series, and likely anything else that comes from the ordered but creative mind of Allen Schatz.
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