Ed, Not Eddie

by Max Everhart

Overview

Ed Leviner, a young female pitcher who's broken every collegiate pitching record, is desperate to make it to the Major Leagues. But someone in the idyllic Southern town of Cook, South Carolina, has threatened to kill her if she pitches in her next big game. Which is in a few days. Which doesn't give private eye and ex-ballplayer Eli Sharpe much time to identify the source of these threats.

Ed has lots of admirers but few friends and several enemies and detractors in this conservative community. Then there's her feuding divorced parents, her spurned tutor, a disgraced coach turned evangelical minister, and the local sheriff, a bully whose son is one of Ed's discarded boyfriends.

Though local law enforcement is oddly unhelpful, Eli is not alone in his search for answers. The TV news team covering the protests is headed up a beautiful anchorwoman from Eli's past. Is she on his side or not?

As usual, Eli is busy raising hackles in a town where there's more than one mad dog in disguise.

Praise for ED, NOT EDDIE:

"Max Everhart writes a great story with the twists and turns required for a solid mystery, but the home run in Ed, Not Eddie is his ability to craft dynamite characters. From the wisecracking protagonist Eli Sharpe to the walk-on characters with only a single line, Everhart invents a unique voice for everyone. If this is your first foray into the Eli Sharpe mystery series, Ed, Not Eddie will have you scrambling to catch up with books one and two." --Elena Hartwell, author of the Eddie Shoes Mystery series

"Ed, Not Eddie is the best written of the Eli Sharpe mysteries. There are strong characters with an intriguing plot. Best of all the narrative flows smoothly. Pages glide by. It has the potential to be a breakthrough book for Everhart." --Suspense Magazine

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948235525
Publisher:	Down & Out Books
Publication date:	11/19/2018
Pages:	246
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Max Everhart has a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Alabama, Birmingham. His short stories have been published in CutBank, Elysian Fields Quarterly, Slow Trains Journal, and juked. His short story, "The Man Who Wore No Pants," was selected by Michael Knight for Best of the Net 2010 and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Dzanc Books' Best of the Web Anthology. He lives with his family in Hartsville, South Carolina. Ed, Not Eddie is the third book in the Eli Sharpe Mystery series, which began with Go Go Gato. You can find Max on the Web at www.maxeverhart.com.

Read an Excerpt

Eli checked his Seiko. Twelve thirty-three. Practice had been over for half an hour, and the field was empty. The coaches and MLB scouts and media were nowhere to be seen, and her teammates, Eli was sure, were back at the dorms already, playing videogames, or cramming for a chemistry exam, or sneaking in a post-practice beer.

But not Ed Leviner.

Here she was doing bleacher stairs with no shoes on. In full sweats. In eighty-five degree heat. While some nut case was out there threatening to kill her. Eli knew from being around great baseball players for years that it wasn't money or fame that motivated them. At least those weren't the primary factors. In fact, motivation, as best Eli could tell, didn't really factor into the equation. No, it was about biology. There was something inside the great players Eli had met, something at a cellular level, a mutation in their DNA, a genetic quirk that caused them to train endlessly. It was instinct, pure and profound and intangible, and like all true sports fans, Eli recognized that instinct in Ed, that capacity for greatness, and he envied her for it. He'd had the talent at one time, no doubt, but it never occurred to him to train on his days off. And he sure as hell wouldn't have sprinted up and down, up and down bleachers unless contractually obligated to do so.

Eli glanced around again. No sign of the deputy Sheriff Hege had assigned to watch out for Ed. Curious.

"Seven!" She punched the sign harder this time.

Eli walked through the first base side dugout, crunching sunflower seed shells under foot. He walked onto the field, hoping she'd see him and stop running.

But she didn't stop.

"Winners never do," Eli said to himself, his envy morphing slowly into admiration. He waited another ten minutes during which time she didn't look up once. She just kept pumping her legs up and down, kept punching the advertisement at the top of the stairs and calling out numbers. Eight … ten … twelve ….

Finally she yelled "Twenty!" She punched the advertisement a final time and interlaced her hands behind her head, sucking in large quantities of oxygen.

Eli was waiting for her when she got to the bottom of the bleachers. He straightened the lapels of his jacket and greeted her.

"I've read about you," she said, still catching her breath. "You're Eli Sharpe, the ballplayer."

"Ex-ballplayer, actually. I'm a private detective now. Your detective, in fact."

"I don't need one."

"Your father disagrees."

"Leland is an idiot." No anger. Just a statement. Eli filed that away as she tossed the sweaty cap onto the bottom bleacher, bent at the waist, and touched her bare toes. An impressive feat, especially for a six-foot-tall woman in sweats.

Editorial Reviews

"This is an excellent read and the author's characters are very real; in particular, Eli Sharpe and his friend Ernest Carpenter. Readers will enjoy the plot, and root for Eli to discover the criminal before a more serious crime occurs."

--Suspense Magazine

Ed, Not Eddie by Max Everhart - The third baseball mystery featuring P.I. Eli Sharpe has a compelling theme. Division III female university baseball pitcher Ed Leviner, has received death threats if she pitches for Cook College in the conference championship game.

What makes Ed special is that she is more than an accomplished pitcher in men's baseball. She is talented enough to be a professional prospect.

Everhart cleverly builds Ed's credibility by making her a knuckleball pitcher. The knuckleball requires more finesse than arm strength to throw well. A gifted female athlete could throw a knuckleball well.

I appreciated that Everhart did not make Ed a Hollywood character. She is not a beauty queen on the mound. While a commanding 6' tall and 200 pounds in weight she is a plain looking woman. What she achieves will be based on her ability not her looks. There is the potential for a movie to be made from this book but you can be sure Hollywood would never cast a plain Ed.

Her father, Leland, reaches out to hire Eli to investigate the threats and protect Ed. The vicious and vulgar written threats have a real sense of menace.

There are several plausible sources to the threats. The leading suspect is Olin Meekins. He had been fired by Cook College as coach of Ed's team. An evangelical preacher as well as a baseball coach Meekins is now spending his spare time leading protests against Ed playing baseball. The protesters have some feudal notions about the place of women in society.

Ed, beyond her aversion to being called Eddie, is strong willed in other ways. She has the self-absorbed personality of many elite athletes. She is indifferent to those around her. She speaks bluntly. Her life is focused on becoming a major league ballplayer.

A former college classmate of Ed discusses her personality:

"Everybody's got their hobby, I suppose. Hers is achievement ……. Ed is what's known as a grade grubber. She cares nothing about learning or knowledge or wisdom …. Results … she cares only about results."

Cook County Sheriff Hage has conducted a perfunctory investigation of the death threats. While assigning an officer to protect Ed her safety is a low priority to the Sheriff.

Sheriff Hage is riled by Sharpe's irreverence and quick wit. He has no patience for Eli .

With the death threats having been shared on the internet the information has swept around America.

Media have been drawn to the story. On the scene when Eli arrives in Cook, South Carolina is a TV van from a local station. He is shaken when he recognizes the beautiful blonde reporter. She is Vivian Vaughn, formerly Sophie Gibson, the first of his five fiancées.

Eli and Vivian broke up after a tragedy 20 years earlier that is intensely personal. The pain has barely eased over the years. The story of their loss helps explain Eli's emotional vulnerability.

During the book Eli and Vivian haltingly approach a new relationship.

Within Ed's family there is a gender twist as the alcoholic parent wearing camouflage gear to the law office and working on the taxidermy of animals she has shot is Ed's mother, Linda Chavis. It is a Mom in financial trouble who is pushing to help Ed with her finances for, if Ed is drafted in the first round, a $1.5 million signing bonus is possible. Ed is utterly disdainful of her mother and refuses to talk to her.

Ed, Not Eddie is the best written of the Eli Sharpe mysteries. There are strong characters with an intriguing plot. Best of all the narrative flows smoothly. Pages glide by. It has the potential to be a break through book for Everhart. I only fear that the lack of sex and minimal violence will hold down sales.

Eli has become of my favourite 21st century sleuths. Everhart's series is the best mystery baseball series I have read since the Kate Henry mysteries of the late Alison Gordon.

Bill Selnes, Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan, Dec 17, 2015

http://mysteriesandmore.blogspot.com/2015/12/ed-not-eddie-bymax-everhart-third.html

"Go Go Gato is a solid, realistic, and thoroughly baseball-based mystery with an entertaining and believable main character in Eli Sharpe, and Everhart's appealing writing style enhances this book to an eminently enjoyable, winning level." --Mark Schraf, Spitball Magazine

"Max Everhart writes a great story with the twists and turns required for a solid mystery, but the home run in Ed, Not Eddie is his ability to craft dynamite characters. From the wisecracking protagonist Eli Sharpe to the walk-on characters with only a single line, Everhart invents a unique voice for everyone. The small town of Cook, South Carolina, and its division III College, are abuzz with the potentially history-making Ed Leviner. But becoming the first woman to pitch for the majors isn't the only obstacle dogging Ed (never call her Eddie!). First, she has to live through the big game at the school. Hired to find out if the death threats to Ed are real, Eli soon finds himself embroiled in all the complications of a small town. Sex, drugs, corruption, and baseball make their way into a plot that keeps you guessing. If this is your first foray into the Eli Sharpe mystery series, Ed, Not Eddie will have you scrambling to catch up with books one and two."

--Elena Hartwell, author of the Eddie Shoes Mystery series

From the Publisher