Richard Koff

Runout: a Novel Richard Koff

The First Annual Amateurs' Invitational Pool Tournament is about to begin in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The entry fee is a cool $5000 so this is not a game for the faint of heart. Twelve players enter and each has a compelling reason to win. As the games progress the players reveal their characters. At this level pool is a mental game in which the players compete more against themselves than against each other. And there are nasty undercurrents that infect the tournament. It all comes to a head when, on the night of the second round, John Bartlette, a wealthy magazine publisher, is brutally murdered. Lieutenant Rafe Silva and his aide, Sergeant Christine Ford, discover that almost everyone had a good reason to hate the victim. Bartlette was a cheat, a rapist, and a blackmailer. For the detectives, too many motives are as bad as too few. Not since The Huslter have we seen a novel that realistically describes the world of high roller pool. Billiards is a game of contraststhe elegance of an exclusive men's club against the grit and grime of the corner pool hall. Everyone is a hustler on the green baize.