Frank King - Southpaw

From the sublime to -

Frank King - Southpaw (Lynx, July 1988)



Blurb:

THE WINNING SEASON: Dominic Lombardi remembers the summer of '63. It was the year he managed the Wolves to the league championship. It was the year they won it all.
THE DEADLY SEASON: The summer of '88 is the season it all might happen again. "Bunny" Bunsen has inherited the team, and with a sharp business sense, has rebuilt the organization. For the first time in 25 years, the Wolves have it together.
Yet it soon becomes clear that something evil is stalking the stadium: An unexplained series of gruesome attacks is launched. The more victories gained, the more heinous the crimes become. As ex-coach Lombardi looks on, a hidden and horrifying past begins to piece itself together.
THE SEASON OF THE WEREWOLF: All the evidence suggests that there is something out there that doesn't care if the team wins or loses ... only if they survive.

"[Frank King] is a superior writer ... His prose is sharp, clear, untouched by rhetoric or cliche." — The New York Times

Ah, now this one's a bit of a gem. Mentioned it in passing before but not in any detail, so time to set that right.

Following the Oaktown Wolves' championship win back in 1963, the team mysteriously fell apart and they've remained in the doldrums ever since. But with beautiful blonde Cynthia 'Bunny' Bunsen at the helm, there's a new wave of optimism about their chances for the coming season. For starters, Bunny is big on imaginative marketing ideas; she's even signed on local high-school girl, Julie Novick, as an animal mascot to work home games like the San Diego Chicken or the Philly Phanatic (Julie gets to wear a wolf costume and be called be called "Wolfie"). Also, Bunny is "one of the boys" and makes really shite wisecracks that everyone finds hilarious. If only burnt out wino Jackie Cannon, captain of the all-conquering '63 side, would quit mooching about the flashy stadium and making everyone feel guilty and miserable. What's his problem anyhow?

The Wolves' opening day win over Portland is soured when, some hours after the match, the mangled corpse of bubbly teenage ball-girl Alice Draught is found decorating the dugout, most of it, anyhow. Alice, who so delighted the crowd with her catches and handstands, is victim of "a perverse attack by either an animal or a lunatic", according to Detective Lambert. "Her throat was ripped out. Other parts of her body that I won't mention in front of a lady were also ripped out. Those parts were never found."

Suspicion falls on Julie/ 'Wolfie's brother, Matt, who's recently served time for molesting a sixteen year old. Did he borrow his sister's costume and get carried away? The werewolf murders stack up and it's obvious Matt has nothing to do with them ..... so who is the southpaw?

Frank King (Aka Franklin B King and mostly 'Lydia Adamson') knocked off at least three more horrors for Onyx, including Raya, Night Vision and "the acclaimed Down And Dirty, and i'm hoping someone can tell me how they shape up?