cover image Breaking Point

Breaking Point

Martina Navratilova. Villard Books, $23 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-679-43391-0

Navratilova and Nickles lob a winner into the mystery court with the follow-up to The Total Zone. At Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Jordan Myles--former women's tennis champ, now co-founder of the Desert Springs Sports Science Center--witnesses the fatal fall (through a greenhouse roof) of Catherine Richie, the former assistant to promoter Jimmy Bennet. Although Jordan leaves the investigation to the French police, questions about the death and the hoopla building around the Crown Jewel, the richest tournament on the circuit (which Catherine was promoting), nag at her. Jordan isn't surprised to learn that PI and old friend Noel Fisher has been hired by Catherine's family to find out who murdered her, and she resolves to help him. But when he's hospitalized after being nearly beaten to death, she realizes that both of them are in danger and she must find the killer before she becomes a victim herself. Insights into the tennis circuit and sports medicine combined with a taut mystery serve to move this doubles pair up a notch in the rankings. Author tour. (Feb.)