Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

Perhaps you’re a sport fan. Or at least you’ve been to a baseball or football game, a rugby match, or a tennis match. If so, you know that people are often very intent on the game. In fact, people can concentrate so much that they don’t notice anything else. And that makes a sporting event a very effective setting for a fictional murder. Even with modern security procedures, it’s not hard to imagine a situation where a murder could be committed at a sporting event. Here are a few examples; I’m sure you’ll think of others.

In Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders, Hercule Poirot, Captain Hastings, and Chief Inspector Japp work with local police to try to solve a series of murders. The only things the murders have in common are that Poirot receives a cryptic warning note before each murder, and that an ABC railway guide is found near each body. Oddly enough, the killer seems to be choosing victims alphabetically.  When the letter D comes up, the murderer warns that the killing will take place in Doncaster. Ordinarily, that would allow the police to plan and find ways to prevent the murder. But that weekend, the St. Leger Stakes is taking place, and Doncaster will be packed with race fans. With so many people watching the race, it will be nearly impossible for the police to monitor what’s going on. And, as you can imagine, they’re not on hand when a murder is actually committed during the race.

Ellery Queen’s short story Man Bites Dog takes place during the World Series between the New York Mets and the New York Yankees. Queen and his love interest, Paula Paris, travel to New York to see the seventh game of the series. Their seats are near that of former baseball great Big Bill Tree, who’s watching the game with a group of people. During the game, Tree suddenly collapses and dies of what turns out to be prussic acid poisoning. Queen would very much rather be watching the game (how often does he get to see the World Series, after all?). But he’s reluctantly drawn into the investigation, and he finds out how someone could have poisoned Tree with a crowd of people around him.

In Alison Gordon’s The Dead Pull Hitter, we are introduced to sports journalist Kate Henry. Her special interest is baseball, and she covers the (fictional) Toronto Titans. This year, they’re a good candidate for a divisional championship and, as it turns out, they win a crucial game and clinch the AL Eastern Division Championship. That entitles them to move on in the quest for a World Series win. Everyone celebrates during and after the game, so the team doesn’t learn until later that Pedro Jorge ‘Sultan’ Sanchez, is dead, and his body found in his home. The police are called in, but Henry is a journalist, and she wants to cover the story. The investigation is just getting started when there’s another death, of another Titans player. Is someone carrying out a vendetta against the Titans? It’s going to be a challenge to get to the truth, because no-one really remembers who was where at different times during the game and the celebration afterwards.

Harlan Coben’s Drop Shot sees athletic talent agent Myron Bolitar drawn into a case of murder when up-and-coming tennis star Valerie Simpson wants to hire him. She’s hoping for a comeback and wants Bolitar to engineer it. Then, tragedy strikes. Valerie is shot and killed outside the stadium where the U.S. Open is being played. Everyone’s attention is on the match, so no-one sees who’s responsible. Duane Richmond, who was Valerie’s chief competition, is the main suspect, but he’s not the only one who could be responsible. And it’s not going to be easy for Bolitar to work out who else could have had the opportunity to kill the victim. Nobody saw what really happened.

Peg Brantley’s Red Tide features Jamie Taylor, a Colorado banking professional who’s also a volunteer rescue dog handler. She gets involved when a convicted killer tells the FBI where he buried his victims. Jamie and her dog find the bodies, but they also find something eerie: there are other, newer, bodies there. Since the original killer is in prison, he couldn’t have committed all of the murders. So who did? Jamie gets involved in the search for the other killer. The climactic scene in this novel takes place at Denver’s Mile High Stadium, where the Denver Broncos football team is playing a home game. There are thousands of people at the stadium, and they’re all watching the game or visiting the concession stands. No-one is paying attention to anything else going on, and that adds to the suspense and danger in the story.

And that’s the thing about sports contests. Whether it’s the Olympics, Wimbledon, the Super Bowl, or a minor-league baseball game, people are there to watch the game. They often get so drawn into it that they don’t notice anything else. And that can make for real danger, at least in crime fiction.

*NOTE: The title of this post is the title of the famous baseball song by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer.