Snap Hook (Hardscrabble Books-Fiction of New England)
What is harder for a golfer to do: find his game or find a believable golf mystery?Corrigan's second Jack Austin novel, starring a PGA touring pro struggling to hold on to his playing credentials, gets a lot of things right. There's plenty of on-course action, and it is mainly authentic and exciting. (There's only one howler: the supposedly long-hitting Austin "crushes" a driver on a 370-yard hole and is left with 130 yards to the green. Even aging book reviewers can hit the occasional 240-yard drive.) More important, Corrigan comes up with a decent premise that doesn't involve bodies in bunkers: a tour official is strong-armed by a Russian gangster into laundering money. There's also an affecting subplot about Austin's dyslexic caddie. Unfortunately, the gangster's scheme has some enormous holes, and the dialogue suffers from too much backstory. Like so many rounds of golf, moments of clumsiness tarnish but don't ruin the experience.Bill OttCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved