Griffith Stadium

Jack Haynes, the compelling, flawed hero of this historical thriller set in 1939, is working as a reporter in St. Louis when he gets a call that his brother, Lou Harris, was murdered in Griffith Stadium, the major-league ballpark of Washington, D.C. Jack, who adopted a new last name to help conceal some damaging secrets about his past, hadn’t seen Lou since their mother died while waiting in a soup line eight years earlier. At the time, the destitute 19-year-old Jack, unable to figure out how he could care for 13-year-old Lou, gave up Lou to a foster home. Jack drops everything to race to D.C. to learn the truth, only to find that the police believe Lou had been a Communist and aren’t actively looking for the killer. Determined to get justice for his brother, Jack turns sleuth. Ambros does a solid job of making Jack’s occasionally amateurish efforts plausible. Fans of Sarah R. Shaber’s WWII-era mysteries (Louise’s Blunder, etc.) will enjoy this effort with its darkly satisfying ending. (BookLife)