High Heat (Paperback)
Exciting, well-written sports scenes transport readers right into the stands while complex issues engage their hearts and minds. For here is a novel of loss, of morality, and of the rare, redemptive power of baseball. Can speaking the truth really determine lives? Just how does one accept, move on, and begin doing the right thing?
Carl Deuker is a celebrated author of “top-flight sports writing matched to uncommonly perceptive coming-of-age stories” (Kirkus Reviews). He describes his younger self as a classic second-stringer: “I was too slow and too short for basketball; I was too small for football, a little too chicken to hang in there against the best fastballs. So, by my senior year the only sport I was still playing was golf.” He was a teacher for many years in the Seattle area, where he now lives with his wife.
carldeuker.ag-sites.net/bio.htm
“A story that delivers baseball action along with a rich psychological portrait, told through a compelling first–person narration.” —School Library Journal “High Heat joins the Deuker canon with yet another fine study of a conflicted soul whose ethical salvation is determined in a sporting arena, and once more readers are left to ponder whether a tainted success loses its sweet savor.” —Bulletin “Deuker fills the page with dozens of exciting play–by–play sequences; these serve not only to move the story along chronologically, but also act as the metronome for Shane’s personal story of loss, recovery and renewal.” —Publishers Weekly “There’s enough taut sports action here to satisfy the most avid fan.” —Booklist “[Deuker] creates another captivating story. Readers will think they are sitting in the front row with a Cracker Jack box and a Coke . . . do not let this one slip past.” —VOYA —