Snap Hook (Hardscrabble Books)

What Dick Francis does for horse racing, John R. Corrigan does for professional golf in his crime novels featuring Jack Austin, a native of Maine and a player on the PGA Tour. Now, with Snap Hook, the first book in the new Hardscrabble Crime series, Corrigan takes Austin deeper into the world of pro golf. The Russian Mafia has long had its claws in North American professional sports-and in Snap Hook it's moving to the PGA Tour. Veteran PGA Tour player Jack Austin has enough to worry about with a balky putter and a rookie caddie-a disadvantaged teen who, like Austin himself, suffers from dyslexia. Winless in ten seasons on the Tour, Austin's putting woes and ensuing poor scores could now cost him his eligibility. When an infant is kidnapped, however, Austin goes after his friend's baby. Soon he comes face to face with Nikoli Silcandrov, a renegade Russian mobster who needs to launder a great deal of money. Austin's final showdown is with PGA Tour superstar Phil Mickelson, when the two go toe-to-toe at the Buick Classic.Corrigan's first Jack Austin mystery, Cut Shot, was hailed by Robert B. Parker as "a riveting novel, with characters you care about, well conceived and gracefully presented."