Introduction

It is 1947, the year Jackie Robinson breaks major-league baseball's colour barrier by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers - and changes the world. This is the story of that season, as told through the eyes of a difficult, brooding, and wounded man named Joseph Burke.

Plot Overview

Burke, a veteran of World War II and a survivor of Guadalcanal, is hired by Brooklyn Dodgers manager Branch Rickey to guard Robinson. While Burke shadows Robinson, a man of tremendous strength and character suddenly thrust into the media spotlight, the bodyguard must also face some hard truths of his own, in a world where the wrong associations can prove fatal.

Themes and Literary Connections

Parker fans will recognize many of the author's lifelong themes (honour and the redemptive power of love), and in Burke there are very real echoes of Parker's strongest character, Spenser. Coupled with the historical background of Jackie Robinson, Parker has produced not only a great and gripping crime novel but also one of the most evocative baseball novels ever written.