Bill Gutman

Murder on Murderer's Row Bill Gutman

When detective Mike Fargo is sent to Yankee Stadium on a hot, May afternoon in 1927 to check out the murder of a stadium groundskeeper, he soon finds himself immersed in a dangerous and complex investigation. His first suspect turns out to be the Yankees star slugger and toast of New York, George Herman "Babe" Ruth. And when the Babe is also a suspect in a second murder, that of a local sportswriter, Fargo sets out to find the real killers. The case takes on even more significance when a special prosecutor, Brent Forrester, comes to town to slow the spread of organized crime, spawned largely by Prohibition. Fargo's initial investigation leads him to a low-level hoodlum, Augie "The Mole" Bendetti, while Forrester begins his pursuit of an Arnold Rothstein wannabe named Manny Goldman. Soon, the two cases merge and Fargo begins working more closely with the special prosecutor while trying to protect the Babe from a deranged killer. The story follows the tough and uncompromising Fargo as he navigates New York City in a year when Broadway flourished, the movies were ready to talk, and the New York Yankees, with a lineup known as Murderer's Row, were being called the greatest baseball team of all-time. Fargo's investigation takes him to venues such as Yankee Stadium, the Cotton Club, Wall Street and the famed Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, painting a vivid picture of New York City during a never-to-be forgotten decade, before the story reaches a gripping and surprising conclusion.