Bøger af Ashna Graves

The dark side of college championship sports hits the news far too often, highlighting a world of driven coaches, academic cheating, rule-breaking boosters, and failed dreams. In a new mystery by the author of the acclaimed Death Pans Out, the murder of a star basketball forward propels journalist Neva Leopold into the troubled heart of this deeply competitive world. The boosters "want to touch us, they want to put their hands on us, to feel our muscles," player Frankie Budd tells Neva, his hand cinching tight on her shoulder. "That's why we call them grippers. That's why I hate the bastards. That's why I took everything I could get." Cars, cash, housing, travel, clothes, passing grades-the players get it all while they're hot. But when it's over, when the scholarships end and 98.8% of the players fail to make the NBA draft, what happens then? What happens when they go from being heroes to nobodies overnight and find themselves wielding a broom instead of a basketball? Is such a downfall grounds for murder? Or is the gripper situation at PAC-12 Conference member Valley State University a long way-a very long way-out of hand?

The murder of a homeless man known as Angel draws journalist Jeneva Leopold into worlds she had no idea existed in her sweet little Oregon town. Two more deaths soon follow. Her search for explanations leads to involvement with a strangely wise homeless woman who feeds cats, a debonair photographer who owns more valuable antiquities than he should, a sculptor with an attitude and a dubious history, an old woman with a deeply painful secret, an assistant police chief who considers Leopold Public Enemy No. 1, a violent street punk known as Quickie, and a girl skater called Pet. Neva's confidence in her own insight and competence are deeply shaken by the outcome.