David O. Stewart

Overview

As the Roaring Twenties take off, corruption seems everywhere--from the bootleggers flouting Prohibition to the cherished heroes of the American Pastime now tarnished by scandal. Swept up in the maelstrom are Dr. Jamie Fraser and Speed Cook, and Babe Ruth...

The Babe, the Sultan of Swat, is shattering records in his first season as a New York Yankee, hitting more home runs than any other team in the American League. Larger than life on the ball field and off, Ruth discovers what the Chicago White Sox players accused of throwing the 1919 World Series have learned-- scandal can reach baseball heroes. Rumors swirl around Ruth’s 1918 World Series win for the Boston Red Sox. Under scrutiny by the new baseball commissioner and enmeshed with gambling kingpin Arnold Rothstein, Ruth turns for help to Speed Cook--a former professional ballplayer himself before the game was segregated and now a promoter of Negro baseball--who knows the dirty underside of the sport.

Cook in turn enlists the help of Dr. Jamie Fraser, whose wife Eliza is producing a silent film starring the Yankee outfielder. Restraint does not come easily to the reckless Ruth, but the Frasers try to keep him clean while Cook investigates.

At the same time, a shocking terrorist attack throws together Cook’s son and Fraser’s daughter. Their interracial romance is as perilous in 1920 as any public scandal--even more so because Joshua is heavily involved in bootlegging. Trying to protect Ruth and their own children, Fraser and Cook find themselves playing a delicate game against dangerous adversaries.

Once again masterfully blending fact and fiction, David O. Stewart delivers a nail-biting historical mystery that captures an era unlike any America has seen before or since in all its moral complexity and dizzying excitement.

Praise

"Having mastered the craft of writing novels that feature Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson, David O. Stewart has now chosen someone who is perfect for the genre. Babe Ruth was as mythic as a person gets, and the author has surrounded The Babe with a Prohibition cast of bootleggers, gangsters and thugs, giving us a fine yarn that mixes and matches the grand glories of The National Pastime with the nefarious foibles of human nature."

—Frank Deford, Sportswriter and Bestselling Novelist

"Stewart is a master at recreating the world in which Babe Ruth thrived, namely the energy and carefree spirit of the “Roaring Twenties.” He also skillfully explores race relations and the social barriers that divided Americans."

--James Barber, Smithsonian.com

“This is so much more than a baseball book. There’s a lot of the Babe, but it’s a history book, a mystery book, a complex book that beautifully details an era in America. I loved it!”
—Tim Kurkjian, ESPN Baseball Contributor and Author

"David O. Stewart is rapidly becoming one of our best new writers of historical mysteries . . . [with] what might be called his Deception series of gripping mysteries."  "[Fraser and Cook] have plenty of fraught challenges, but none more engaging and human than the swaggering, generous, profligate Great Bambino."

--Washington Times, September 22, 2016

-- Washington Independent Review of Books, October 9, 2016

“[The Babe Ruth Deception] cleverly mixes real-life people and historical events. The problems of the unlikely sleuths will particularly appeal to baseball fans.”
—Kirkus Reviews

"Well written novels that blend fact and fiction always get my attention, and if it's Babe Ruth and characters from his era, I'm in.  David O. Stewart reminds us of why the '20s roared, and how much fun the Babe was.  A delight!"

—Marty Appel, bestselling author of Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain, and Pinstripe Empire

"A rollicking real-life figure leads to a rollicking fictional romp. The allure of the Babe may bring you into this book; David O. Stewart's lively tale will keep you there."

—Kostya Kennedy, award-winning sportswriter and book author