An OtF Book Review: Murder, Basketball, & the Nashville Predators collide in “A Sporting Murder”

As rumors swirl of a potential NBA team coming to Nashville, a group of hardcore Predators fans launches an effort to investigate and discredit the group responsible. After a young man with inside information winds up dead, however, the stakes get raised in Chester Campbell’s A Sporting Murder , which goes on sale today…

Follow after the jump to find out more!

On September 25, Chester Campbell will have a launch party for the book at Mysteries & More (located in Lenox Village, just off Nolensville Pike in south Nashville) from 2:00-4:00 p.m.

While your initial reaction might be that this plot sounds pretty implausible, the recent history of the Nashville Predators suggests otherwise. After all, just in the last three years we’ve had one owner of the team exposed as a fraud and sent to federal prison, allegations raised that parties in Canada manipulated local officials in an attempt to run the team out of town, and a major sponsor raided by the IRS and headed for liquidation in bankruptcy court.

In short, sometimes truth is indeed stranger than fiction!

In A Sporting Murder, we follow along with private investigator Greg McKenzie as he is initially given the charge of investigating the group looking to bring an NBA franchise to Nashville. A well-heeled trio of Predators fans is worried that the local market simply isn’t big enough to support both an NBA and an NHL team alongside the NFL’s Tennessee Titans. Things take a dangerous turn after an informant is shot dead moments before a clandestine meeting, though, and McKenzie faces a number of threats to both he and wife as they try to identify the murderer, and the reason why a dispute over the local sports scene has turned into a matter of life or death.

This is very much a local book, filled with the sights and sounds of the Nashville area. Speaking as someone who doesn’t read mystery novels, this was a surprisingly entertaining ride, one that keeps you flipping back to check previous passages as new clues come to light. There are some elements which will also ring eerily true for Predators fans, such as a wealthy businessman from out-of-state with some disgruntled former clients, and a country music star who loves the team, and is willing to leverage his considerable resources to help protect it. It’s hard to tell which roads will lead to solving the murder, and which are red herrings, but it’s fun to try.

All in all, it’s an enjoyable escape from the everyday, a harmless piece of fiction to get you in the mood for hockey season. Because really, nobody would actually commit murder for the sake of the Nashville Predators, right?

Right?

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Links to the book above are Amazon affiliate links – if you order it, I’ll get a small commission.