Top 25 Sports Fiction other than Dick Francis (4.90 to 4.15)
Discover the top 25 sports fiction books beyond Dick Francis, rated 4.90 to 4.15. Explore thrilling reads in horse racing, football, boxing, and more for fans of high-stakes drama and athletic action.
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Prospect
by Bill Littlefield
Batter up for a novel steeped in the lore and mythology of baseball. A retired baseball scout makes one final discovery that could change everyone's life. The story of an unlikely kinship and even more unlikely success.
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A Wicked Slice
by Charlotte Elkins
Lee Ofsted just makes the cut for the Pacific Western Woman's Pro-Am golf tournament. She's never hit the ball better -- but for some reason, her drives keep slicing. But this isn't the only mystery -- soon Lee discovers the body of the tour's star at the bottom of the course lake. Enter Lieutenant Graham Sheldon. He's charming, handsome, and determined to capture the killer -- as well as Lee's heart. But the murder has triggered buried anger and jealousy among the players, and with a diabolical killer on the loose, Lee finds that making par is the least of her problems
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The Distance
by Eddie Muller
The demimonde of professional boxing resounds with echoes of film noir in this thrilling debut novel from an author renowned in both fields.
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Fourth Down
by Dave Klein
Dave Kleins insiders knowledge of the game and the men who play it informs every page of Fourth Down. Ed Buck, sportswriter, and Adam Benson, the Chicago Bears star quarterback, once played college football on the same team. Now Benson confesses to Buck that the mob is forcing him to throw games, and that hes going to play to win against the New York Giants. Benson dies in the middle of the game, apparently of a heart attack. Ed Buck knows it was murder, and convinces a police detective to probe the tangled connections between the dead quarterback and the head of an organized crime family.
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Hunting a Detroit Tiger
by Troy Soos
It's 1920, and all Mickey Rawlings wants is a .250 batting average, 20 stolen bases, and a regular place in the Tigers' lineup. But when Emmett Siever, an old-time baseball player, is killed, Mickey finds himself accused of the crime. Now, with someone seeking revenge for Siever's murder and the baseball owners pressuring him to speak out against the unions, Mickey must find the real killer.
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Murder at Ebbets Field
by Troy Soos
Anticipating the animosity between the Brooklyn Dodgers and his own team, Giants player Mickey Rawlings is nevertheless surprised when Florence Hampton, the widow of Dodger owner William Daley, is murdered after an important game.
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Murder at Fenway Park
by Troy Soos
The year is 1912, the time of Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson, and Mickey Rawlings, a young ballplayer fresh from the bush leagues, is about to get a major league education--when he stumbles on a murder in Fenway Park and becomes the number one suspect.
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Hugger Mugger
by Robert B. Parker
"It's easy to see why Parker's snappy banter and cynical eye have kept fans turning pages for 25 years . . . his wisecracks, combined with Parker's shorthand flair for scathing characterization, make for a satisfying read," said Entertainment Weekly of last year's Hush Money. Now Parker presents Spenser with a deceptively dangerous and multi-layered case: Someone has been killing racehorses at stables across the south, and the Boston P.I. travels to Georgia to protect the two-year-old destined to become the next Secretariat. When Spenser is approached by Walter Clive, president of Three Fillies Stables, to find out who is threatening his horse Hugger Mugger, he can hardly say no: He's been doing pro bono work for so long his cupboards are just about bare. Disregarding the resentment of the local Georgia law enforcement, Spenser takes the case. Though Clive has hired a separate security firm, he wants someone with Spenser's experience to supervise the operation. Despite a veneer of civility, Spenser encounters tensions beneath the surface southern gentility. The case takes an even more deadly turn when the attacker claims a human victim, and Spenser must revise his impressions of the whole Three Fillies organization--and watch his own back as well. With razor-sharp dialogue, eloquently spare prose, and some of the best supporting characters to grace the printed page, Hugger Mugger is grand entertainment.
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Rotten Lies
by Charlotte Elkins
Professional golfer and amateur sleuth Lee Ofsted investigates a string of mysterious deaths at a country club in New Mexico, where lightning seems to strike twice
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One False Move
by Harlan Coben
Sports agent and occasional P.I. Myron Bolitar is hired to protect basketball superstar Brenda Slaughter, who has been receiving bizarre death threats, but Myron's investigation takes a turn when Brenda's father is killed. Reprint.
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Deal Breaker
by Harlan Coben
Softhearted sports agent Myron Bolitar must unravel a complex mystery involving blackmail and family tragedy when his client, celebrated rookie quarterback Christian Steele, receives a phone call from a supposedly-dead ex-girlfriend. Reissue.
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The Cincinnati Red Stalkings
by Troy Soos
Troy Soos's Mickey 50Rawlings baseball mysteries are "a perfect marriage between baseball and mystery fiction" (Mystery Readers Journal). Now, with THE CINCINNATI RED STALKINGS, he gives us another intriguing mystery that's sure to win fans for this evocative series. After winning the 1919 World Series, Cincinnati Reds utility infielder Mickey Rawlings thinks he has something to cheer about -- until he gets involved in murder. It starts when Mickey Rawlings volunteers to help Oliver Perriman, a die-hard Reds fan, organize an exhibit of memorabilia to honor the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings. But Perriman gets shot to death and Mickey is next in the line of fire. In Perriman's collection are the explosive clues to a fifty-year-old mystery -- the death of a Red Stockings fan -- and the disappearance of "substitute" player Dick Hurley -- the Mickey Rawlings of his time. As Mickey sets out to solve both the old crime and Perriman's murder, he soon finds himself embroiled in a mix of conspiracy, lies, and murder that can end his career...and his life.
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Saturday Night Dead
by Richard D. Rosen
Harvey Blissberg is hired to keep an eye on Roy Ganz, the anything-goes creator of the late-night "Last Laughs" TV show, but when Roy is pushed out of a window suspects abound, and Blissberg searches for a killer
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Wild Pitch
by Mike Lupica
Lupica's hilarious take on America's favorite sport is now in paperback. ""Wild Pitch" captures the angst, the pathos, and the rare exhilaration of being a Red Sox guy. This book is really good."--Robert B. Parker.
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Drop Shot
by Harlan Coben
Investigating the killing of a burned-out tennis star, sports agent Myron Bolitar uncovers a connection between the victim and a rising star from the wrong side of the tracks, while a corrupt senator and organized crime watch his every move. Reissue.
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Back Spin
by Harlan Coben
The disappearance of the son of a golf star from a sleazy hotel in inner-city Philadelphia brings the skeletons clattering out of his family's closet and draws sports agent Myron Bolitar into a crowd of criminals and blue-bloods. Reissue.
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The Final Detail
by Harlan Coben
When Myron Bolitar's best friend and partner is arrested for the murder of a clienta fallen baseball star attempting a comebackMyron and his sidekick Win plunge into their most difficult and bizarre case yet. By the author of the Edgar and Shamus Awardwinning Fade Away. Reprint.
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Darkest Fear
by Harlan Coben
A friend's son is gravely ill and the potential bone-marrow donor who could save his life has disappeared, so detective Myron Bolitar has no choice but to investigate, even though his sports agency desperately needs his attention. Reprint.
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Shadow Boxer
by Eddie Muller
"Charismatic boxing columnist, Billy Nichols, is back on the beat for the San Francisco Inquirer. But his problems are hardly behind him. A man's in jail, accused of murder. But did he do it? By aiding a beguiling woman, Billy stumbles on evidence that could exonerate the defendant, who only months before was one of the town's top fight promoters."--Jacket.
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Stalking Horse
by Bill Shoemaker
Straight from the Winner's Circle, the greatest jockey of all time draws on his vast experience on and off the track to spin one of the most suspenseful mysteries of the year.... Coley Killebrew was one of the best jockeys in the business -- until a race-fixing scandal got him barred from the track. Now the man responsible for blackening his name, racing steward Raymond Starbuck, offers Coley a chance to redeem his reputation. All Coley has to do is investigate some underworld characters who are muscling in on a track in New Orleans, resist the irresistible redhead he loved and lost. Francie Dorn, and reckon with Lea, Starbuck's leggy blonde daughter, who's its adept at seducing men as she is at blowing them away....
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Double Play
by Robert B. Parker
In a brilliant novel about a very real man, Parker tells the story of the 1947 baseball season--when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier--through the eyes of a difficult, brooding, wounded man hired to guard Robinson.
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Hanging Curve
by Troy Soos
A baseball player risks his career in 1922 when he agrees to play in a game against a black semi-pro team from East St. Louis. He realizes there's more at stake than his career when a black pitcher is lynched and killed by the Klan. Mickey investigates the murder, and is plunged into a shocking world of violence and corruption.