Baseball

Peter Abrahams, The Fan.
When a star player goes into a slump, a fan who has lost everything but his hopes for the Red Sox is determined to change things no matter what.

Jim Bouton & Eliot Asinof, Strike Zone.
In a game that will determine who makes it to the playoffs, a Cubs pitcher making his first start faces an umpire who has been asked to call the game in favor of the Phillies.

Darryl Brock, Havana Heat.
An aging, deaf pitcher joins an exhibition tour of Cuba just after the Spanish-American War and discovers a talented deaf Cuban pitcher.

Frank Deford, The Entitled.
A baseball manager has to deal with a struggling team and a star player accused of rape.

Crabbe Evers, Fear in Fenway. Mystery
When someone spikes the potato salad at the old timers game at Fenway Park, a sportswriter sets out to catch a killer.

Pete Fromm, How This All Started.
A Texas boy idolizes his older sister who coaches him at pitching, but he is unaware that she is heading for a breakdown.

Alison Gordon, Prairie Hardball. Mystery
A reporter whose mother played in the women’s baseball league of the 1940s investigates the murder of one of her mother’s former teammates.

Bill Granger, The New York Yanquis.
The owner of the Yankees, fed up with paying exorbitant salaries, replaces the entire team with 24 unknowns from Cuba.

Kevin King, All the Stars Came Out That Night.
During the Depression, an all-star team of white baseball players face the best of the Negro Leagues led by Satchel Paige at Fenway Park.

W. P. Kinsella, Shoeless Joe.
The legendary Sox player comes to life when a farmer builds a baseball diamond in his cornfield.

Ring Lardner, The Annotated Baseball Stories.
Lardner’s classic stories are supplemented with information about the real players and times.

Scott Lasser, Battle Creek.
A man who has coached an amateur baseball team for 30 years hopes to finally win the national championship.

Sam Leonard, A Difficult Trade. Mystery
The owner of a baseball team who is losing money comes up with an extreme plan to cut costs.

Mike Lupica, Wild Pitch.
A pitcher who was forced to retire because of a ruined arm meets a mysterious therapist whose treatments allow him to return to the majors.

Bernard Malamud, The Natural.
A player who left baseball because of a youthful indiscretion returns at an advanced age and places himself at the mercy of corrupt agents.

John Manderino, The Man Who Once Played Catch with Nellie Fox.
An aging ballplayer slogs through the minors clinging to hope for a shot at the majors.

Troon McAllister, The Kid Who Batted 1000.
The manager of the Des Moines Majestyks recruits a skinny kid with the perfect eye for pitches.

Frank Nappi, The Legend of Mickey Tussler.
An autistic farm boy is recruited as a pitcher by a minor league baseball team in the 1940s.

Robert Parker, Double Play.
In 1947, a World War II vet is hired by the Dodgers to protect Jackie Robinson in his rookie season.

Peter Schilling, The End of Baseball.
A "what if" scenario that imagines what baseball would have been like if the best players from the Negro Leagues joined the Majors in 1944.

April Smith, Be the One.
A scout goes to the Dominican Republic to recruit a center fielder, but trouble follows them to the U.S.

Troy Soos, Murder at Fenway Park. Mystery
Mickey Rawlings joins the Boston Red Sox in 1912 and discovers a murder.

Mark Winegardner, The Veracruz Blues.
In 1994, a year without a World Series, a baseball reporter writes about the Mexican industrialist who tried to form his own major league in 1946.

Football

Mark Bavaro, Rough and Tumble.
A veteran tight end on the New York Giants hopes his team is Super Bowl-bound until their star linebacker is nearly beaten to death.

Harlan Coben, Deal Breaker. Mystery
Sports agent Myron Bolitar investigates when his star quarterback client gets a phone call from his girlfriend who is missing and presumed murdered. Part of a series on sports.

Tim Green, Ruffians.
A gifted player is drafted by the NFL's worst team, where the owner is unscrupulous, the coach is a psycho, & the players’ steroid use leads to tragedy.

John Grisham, Playing for Pizza.
A third-string quarterback who blew an AFC championship game goes to play football in Italy.

Dan Jenkins, Semi-Tough.
A raucous, raunchy look at the world of pro football through the eyes of two Texans who play for the New York Giants in the 1970s.

Jerry Jenkins, Hometown Legend.
A former coach of a high school team that lost the state championship and suffered a tragedy returns for the school’s final football season.

Mike Lupica, Bump and Run.
A man leaves his job at a Vegas casino when he inherits his father's NFL team and encounters even more corruption.

Willard Manus, The Pigskin Rabbi.
A rabbinical student is discovered by a scout and becomes quarterback of the Giants and leads his team to the Super Bowl.

Wil Mara, The Draft.
When their star quarterback is injured in a car crash the Ravens try to secure a top draft pick.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips, It Had to Be You. Romance
When a socialite inherits a Chicago football team, sparks fly between the coach and the new owner.

Reggie Rivers, 4th and Fixed.
A fixer is hired to get a struggling San Antonio team to the Super Bowl while an NFL special agent tries to stop him.

David Rosenfelt, Sudden Death.
A lawyer is hired to defend a NY Giants running back accused of murdering a Jets wide receiver.

S. J. Rozan, Winter and Night. Mystery
When P.I. Bill Smith's nephew goes missing, he heads to the kid’s hometown where football is more important than anything, even a kid's life.

Basketball

Jay Amberg, Blackbird Singing.
A suburban detective tracks down a deranged computer genius who has kidnapped the daughter of a Chicago Bulls star.

Peter Gent, The Conquering Heroes.
An assistant college basketball coach has second thoughts after helping cover up a star player’s crime.

Bill Granger, Drover and the Zebras.
Sportswriter-turned-P.I. Drover returns to his Chicago alma mater when their basketball team is targeted by an NCAA investigation.

Alan Lelchuk, Playing the Game.
A team of Ivy League misfits end up in the NCAA Final Four.

Mike Lupica, Full Court Press.
A humorous account of the obstacles faced by the first woman to play in the NBA.

Jack McCallum & Jon Wertheim, Foul Lines.
A Yale graduate lands a dream job with a pro basketball team but finds the reality both shocking and seductive.

Jim Patton, The Shake.
Big money, greed, drugs, and blackmail set off an insidious chain of events in this hard-hitting novel that takes its game off the court and into the belly of the professional basketball scene in Oregon.

Rick Reilly, Slo-Mo: My Untrue Story.
The hilarious adventures of a 7’8” teenager raised in a cult who is tricked into the NBA draft and enters the strange new world of pro basketball.

Charley Rosen, The House of Moses All-Stars.
During the Depression, a Jewish basketball team embarks on a cross-country tour.

Hockey

Jack Falla, Saved.
After an unexpected trade, a goalie finds himself competing against his old teammates in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Sara Paretsky, Deadlock. Mystery
When a Chicago Black Hawks star falls off a wharf and drowns in Lake Michigan, V.I. Warshawski tries to determine if it was suicide, accident or murder.

Golf

William Bernhardt, Final Round.
A golfer who barely made the cut for a premier tournament is the prime suspect when one of his clubs is used to murder a superior player.

Dan Binchy, Loopy.
A golfer from a remote course on the west coast of Ireland takes on some of the world’s best amateur golfers.

J. S. Borthwick, Murder in the Rough. Mystery
A woman’s inlaws move to a planned community where a body is discovered on the golf course.

John Corrigan, Bad Lie. Mystery
A PGA pro helps a former caddie find out about his murdered father. Part of a series.

John Coyne, The Caddie Who Knew Ben Hogan.
In 1946, a teen caddies for Ben Hogan on the eve of the Chicago Open.

Tom Coyne, A Gentleman’s Game.
A 13-year-old golf champion who works as a caddy at an exclusive club discovers the seamy side of the game.

Robert Cullen, A Mulligan for Bobby Jobe.
A golfer blinded by lightning reunites with his estranged caddy who acts as his eyes on the course.

Michael Griffith, Spikes.
A champion college golfer whose game has since declined switches places with his partner at a tournament and finds himself playing well again.

Alan Hollingsworth, Flatbellies.
A high school golf team in a small Oklahoma town tries to win the state championship.

Troon McAllister, The Green.
An unknown hustler is recruited to represent the U.S. in the Ryder Cup.

Keith Miles, Bermuda Grass. Mystery
A golf pro heads to England to design a golf course, but things go awry when he discovers a body on the green and his daughter is abducted.

Billy Mott, The Back Nine.
A former golf prodigy becomes a caddie and gets involved in a high-stakes match with a hustler.

Rick Reilly, Missing Links.
A group of golfers who play at a garbage dump discover a beautiful golf course next door.

Mike Shropshire, The Pro.
A golfer who was kicked off the PGA tour in disgrace is given a fabulous driver and tries to make a comeback on the Seniors tour.

Don Wade, Take Dead Aim.
A burned-out CIA agent investigates an attempt by an IRA splinter group to assassinate a British golfer.

Tennis

Jack Bickham, Breakfast at Wimbledon.
Sent to Wimbledon to protect a tennis player, a CIA operative hopes to realize his lifetime dream of playing at the hallowed tournament, if he can get past bumbling MI5 agents and the IRA.

Harlan Coben, Drop Shot. Mystery
When a troubled tennis star on the verge of a comeback is murdered, the prime suspect is another player who is one of sports agent Myron Bolitar’s clients. Part of a series on sports.

Donna Kauffman, Not So Snow White.
After a career-ending injury, a tennis star reluctantly agrees to coach a teen phenom.

Anne Lamott, Crooked Little Heart.
Two junior tennis champs get in trouble when one starts to cheat and the other runs around with boys.

Martina Navratilova, The Total Zone. Mystery
A tennis pro turned sports therapist investigates the disappearance of a young tennis star. Part of a series on tennis.

Madeleine Wickham, The Tennis Party.
A weekend tennis party becomes a wicked study of modern marriage for four different couples of varying economic and social backgrounds.

Stuart Woods, Choke.
A tennis pro who tends to choke at big matches gets involved with a married woman and is suspected of killing her husband.

Running

William Goldman, Marathon Man.
A runner is forced into a vortex of terror, treachery and murder and must race for his life.

Lucy Hawking, Run for Your Life.
A woman joins the Battersea Park New Runner’s Club in hopes of providing direction in her life.

Jeremy Jackson, Life at These Speeds.
After all his teammates are killed in a car crash, a high school athlete becomes a star runner, but inside he’s in turmoil.

Boxing

George MacDonald Fraser, Black Ajax.
A fictional account of the life of Tom Molineaux, a former slave who won his freedom in a boxing match and traveled to England for a much-publicized bout with Tom Cribb.

Steve Monroe, ‘57 Chicago.
A Chicago boxing promoter hopes to make his fortune when he pits a young black fighter against the reigning champ, but nothing goes as planned.

Eddie Muller, The Distance. Mystery
In 1940s San Francisco, a reporter finds himself an accessory to a crime when he finds a heavyweight boxer standing over the body of his manager.

Darin Strauss, The Real McCoy.
A novel based on the life of Kid McCoy, a turn-of-the-century boxer, thief, scam artist and grifter.

F. X. Toole, Million Dollar Baby.
A collection of boxing stories including the basis for the Academy Award winning film.

Martial Arts

Madison Smartt Bell, Ten Indians.
A child psychologist who is weary of his privileged clients decides to open a tae kwon do school in an inner-city neighborhood in Baltimore.

John Donohue, Sensei. Mystery
A history professor who is a trained martial artist is drawn into investigating the murders of several Japanese martial artists with the help of his sensei.

Philip Singerman, Prancing Tiger.
An ex-CIA operative who is a marital arts expert is called out of retirement by an old flame who wants him to clear her son of rape and murder charges.

Gail Tsukiyama, Street of a Thousand Blossoms.
Two brothers - a sumo wrestler and a mask artisan - come of age in Japan during World War II and in the years of rebuilding that follow.

Skiing & Climbing

Jon Land, Hope Mountain.
An injured ski champion becomes a trainer at a school that teaches the disabled to ski.

Kyle Mills, Free Fall.
An FBI agent searches for an expert rock climber who may have information about a murder and a missing top-secret file.

Swimming

Lynne Hugo & A. Villegas, Swimming Lessons.
A woman who was unable to save her brother from drowning as a child takes swimming lessons from an instructor who was once nearly drowned by her mother’s boyfriend.

Madeline Wickham, Swimming Pool Sunday.
When a child ends up in a coma at a charity swimming event, an ambitious lawyer convinces the parents to sue.

Surfing

Deborah Atkinson, The Green Room. Mystery
A Hawaiian attorney is invited to a surf contest and investigates a threat on her cousin’s life.

David Daniel, Goofy Foot. Mystery
A private eye travels to a seaside town in search of a missing girl.

John DeCure, Reef Dance. Mystery
An attorney in juvenile court who is an avid surfer takes on the case of a baby-seller and is led into the mystery of his own mother’s disappearance.

Don Winslow, Dawn Patrol.
A surfer who works as a P.I. blames himself for the unsolved abduction of a girl.

Tim Winton, Breath.
Two thrill-seeking adolescent boys fall under the thrall of a surfer in Australia.

Skating

Alina Adams, Axel of Evil. Paperback Mystery
When a Russian figure skating coach dies during practice, a reporter has a hunch it's cold-blooded murder. Part of a series.

Patrick Lynch, Figure of Eight.
A figure skater hoping to make a comeback begins receiving threats that hint at a dark secret from her past.



Fencing

Dave Duncan, The Gilded Chain. Science Fiction
The finest swordsman in the King’s Blades embarks on a quest for a glorious treasure that lies behind the walls of an ancient, isolated city. Part of a series on swordsmanship.

Arturo Perez-Reverte, The Fencing Master. Mystery
In 19th century Spain, a fencing master is asked for lessons by a mysterious woman, and he soon finds himself embroiled in a plot involving seduction, secret documents and murder.