Forced Out

by Stephen W. Frey and Stephen Martin

Book Overview

Now in mass market from the New York Times bestselling author-a mesmerizing thriller where life and death are played out against the backdrop of America's favorite pastime. Forced to retire from his... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416549633
• ISBN13: 9781416549635
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Baseball and the Mafia, What a Combination

Take the Mafia and Baseball, America's fabled bad guys and America's pastime and you've got FORCED OUT. Who could resist a thriller with a Yankee's and Florida backdrop. Not me, that's for sure. Sixty-three-year-old Jack Barrett is a former Yankee's scout living in Florida with his daughter, because he was forced out of his job. He goes to a minor league game with his daughter and her sleazy boyfriend and discovers Mikey Clemant, a player who could be the next Mickey Mantle. If fact he's replacating the Mick's games, that's how good he is. And look at the names, Mickey Mantle and Mikey Clemant, see anything there? As it turns out Mikey is on the run from the Mafia and one of their bosses has hired Johnny "The Deuce" Bondano to find Mikey and put him to rest, permanently. It's not surprising Mikey doesn't want to play for the Yankees, but if only he would, Jack could get the credit for the biggest baseball discovery in a generation. He could get back in the game big time. There is only that pesky little Mafia problem. I liked this book more than I can say, though I have to admit the ending threw me farther than a throw from deep center to second base. Still this is a good book, well worth reading.

Far more than just its story -- and the story's good

On the surface, this begins as a fairly standard thriller/mystery but it is resonant at many levels. It's a story of pairs of people caught in horrible traps of their own past and in their relationships with each other, with no perceivable way out -- Jack, the central figure -- elderly father who was once in the center of big league baseball and is now broke, drunk and resentful -- and his on-the-shelf daughter, Cheryl, and their conflicted efforts to escape from bad past, bleak present and hopeless future; Cheryl's own search for a decent man (she gets Bobby intead), the tormented expert assassin and his vicious boss; his lament for his dead wife, Karen, and a determination somehow to avoid betrayal of what little self-regard he still has; the young fatherless, angry and bright young man that Jack recruits to help him get close to the core figure in the mystery, a brilliant minor-league baseball player with All-Star talent but determined to distqance jimself from everyone, a low-level loan shark and his own wife Karen.... These dyads of despair weave together and, while the resolution is perhaps a tiny contrived, they come to life and catch the reader's empathy. The story line is well-handled, a straight-forward basic plot, where you can guess at some of the main denouements but there are twists everywhere, all convincing. The characters are cleverfully revealed through the story, with no wasted psychologizing or sidetracks; Cheryl, in particular comes alive in her sad dilemmas. The book could be a downer; at stages, the threats the good guys face seem deadly in their traps, and indeed there are bleak elements throughout the story. (My review does not inlcude some of the other key characters -- this is, after all, a mystery and you want it kept that way before you read it.) I did not have high expectations of "Forced Out" and the first 30 or so pages of set up were just OK, not special. But as the story unfolded, I found it more and more both enjoyable and memorable.

Highly Entertaining!

This was a very well-written and highly entertaining novel. I have never read any other books by Stephen Frey, but after reading this one I will likely check out some of his other works as well. One thing about this book was how the story carefully followed several seperate paths and characters, having all of them converge neatly in the end. Everything came together very quickly, almost too quickly. That is the main flaw that I can find in this novel. There was tremendous build-up, then it was all over just like that. As the story progresses, you will be kept guessing as new things develop, and some twists in the end will surprise you. Some of those twists were a bit of a let-down for me, but then again would there have been any satisfaction in the book had it ended as I had figured it would? Not really. At any rate, the book did it's job. It entertained me for a few days, and I found myself having a difficult time putting it down once I started reading it. If you are up to taking a chance on an author who is new to you, or just feel like branching out from your usual reads, then this book would be a good place to start.

Close Play at the Plate

The diamond of life may not end up as a web gem. And it can only take one bobble of an infield chopper to cause the score to become impossibly out of reach. Author Stephen Frey takes the lives of three men who had professional success or showed incredible potential, but the breaks of the game found them sharing space on a dugout bench that may prove to be deadly. And forces beyond their control are interlocking their lives in ways that could not be imagined. Leading off is a former Major League Baseball scout, whose planned retirement with grace comes crashing down after one error in a career of many homers. With less than a buck in a bank and a caring daughter who is finding life a struggle, he needs a big break, somewhere and somehow. Next up is a "five-tool" ball player, who has a mysterious past and a murkier future due to a surly and lackadaisical attitude. In the lowest rung of the minors, he has paid a huge price when the only luck his family had was terribly bad. The trio is complete with a mob hit man who got involved in the vicious contest where death is the only option while seeking revenge on a classless physician whose primary care is his bank account. But the hit man's life becomes expendable when the shadows in organized crime say so. A thriller with heart and soul, Frey takes the reader on an emotional ride where only the strong - who have the luck of the draw - may survive. The emotions stay high until the end and the score will not be determined until the final pitch, which appears to be humming wild, high and tight into the catchers mitt.

Suspense, Drama and Baseball - A Great Triple Play!

You certainly don't need to be a baseball fan to enjoy this story, but if you are than you are really in for a wonderful treat. Stephen Frey manages to weave together several different and completely engaging storylines around America's favorite pastime without alienating or boring a non-baseball fan. And you will find yourself truly caring about what happens to everyone you meet. Although the character of disgraced ex-Yankee scout Jack Barrett and his desire for a Phoenix-like rise from the ashes is not someone I would normally root for, in the author's capable hands you find yourself recognizing that he is human after all. He has made some mistakes in his life and his been dealt some pretty nasty cards, but yet he still keeps going and doesn't totally give up hope for himself or for his daughter. Discovering what he believes to be the greatest untapped baseball talent festering in a backwater minor league team, Jack Barrett begins to see the tiniest flicker of light at the end of the tunnel. But there are secrets, deceptions and revelations which will keep the reader entertained and satisfied till the end. And although some plot points may appear a little farfetched, I don't believe it will distract the reader from having a good time with some pretty interesting individuals.