Lisa Saxton

Lisa Saxton

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LISA SAXTON
(Photo Jerry Bauer)

Lisa Saxton was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and has also lived in Merchantville, New Jersey, Annapolis, Maryland, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she graduated from Chatham College. She now resides in northern New Jersey. An avid baseball fan, she divides her free time between rooting for her beloved New York Yankees and waiting (and/or searching) for "Mr. You'll Do."

"With vigor and humor and a rare storytelling flair, author Lisa Saxton brings a welcome combination of freshness and fun to the crime-writing scene."

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Caught Caught in a Rundown
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Fans of Barbara Neely and Valerie Wilson Wesley, and mystery readers everywhere, get ready for a treat! Here comes Lisa Saxton, an audacious new fictional voice with a rollicking caper featuring the "odd couple" of sleuths-beautiful, black, spoiled Jewel Averick and her Milquetoast-personified white friend, Dee Sweet.

The bases are loaded with humor and suspense when Jewel and Dee, the wives of two major-league baseball players, team up to locate the legendary and mysterious Two-Mile McLemore, a star slugger from the old Negro Leagues.

When Jewel's husband, Russell, a center fielder for the D.C. Diamonds, buys Two Mile's glove at auction for the exalted sum of $15,000, Jewel fumes at the extravagance. Her lavish home is already filled with unattractive old gloves. Why does he want another, especially one that comes with a five-figure price tag? No slouch Jewel, she jumps at the opportunity when shady character Anthony Graves arrives at her front door and offers to purchase the glove. He claims it's for his sick child, but Jewel's not really convinced Anthony's countenance shines forth with paternal concern.

End of story, except that Jewel switches gloves on her buyer and pockets the profit. Now she must deal with both an angry husband and an extremely unhappy, and possibly dangerous, would-be purchaser.

Why is Graves, or the man he works for, so desperate to acquire this particular glove? The answer must lie with Two-Mile himself, who long ago disappeared into the sunset. But Jewel has a clue where to find him. Together, Jewel and Dee Sweet, who's also having some troubles on the home front with secondbaseman-husband Mark, set off on a high-spirited search that takes the women to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, the Caribbean, and points in between, with the bad guys always in close pursuit. Back at home, fifteen-year-old Negro Leagues scholar Gibby Sager provides enthusiastic support.

Beginning their quest as mere acquaintances, Jewel and Dee soon form an unlikely bond as the selfcentered beauty and the insecure Midwesterner discover that, under their dissimilar exteriors, they have much to share. The hunt for worldly treasure and a living baseball legend secures for them an even more important prize-a deep friendship and a renewed insight into the importance of love, family, and friends.

With vigor and humor and a rare storytelling flair, author Lisa Saxton brings a welcome combination of freshness and fun to the crime-writing scene.