Baseball, Meet Mystery and Romance

The Last of the Seals: A Sam Slater Mystery by Greg Messel is a page-turning novel, chronicling the story of Sam Slater, a minor league baseball player who becomes a private eye after the San Francisco Seals are disbanded to make way for the Giants.  This first installment establishes Messel as a master of the mystery adventure genre, proving that he is as talented at keeping readers in suspense as he is at capturing their emotions, as he did in such novels as The Illusion of Certainty.

Slater’s new career immediately launches him into the middle of a mystery; his best friend and would-be business partner was murdered just before delivering photos to a client, making it evident that someone definitely did not want the photos to be seen and would go to any lengths to suppress them.  As Sam begins to unravel the mystery, he is threatened and bullied and someone leaves an ominous message for him at his apartment.  The only bright spot for Sam is his new girlfriend, Amelia, a glamorous TWA flight attendant, who is endangered by Slater’s new career.  When it becomes evident that the mob is involved in his partner’s death, Amelia and Sam must flee San Francisco together.

As the story unfolds, Messel keeps readers on the edge of their seats, anxiously turning pages.  Messel captivates readers with his colorful cast of baseball players, TWA flight attendants, mobsters, socialites, philanderers, and murderers.

The Last of the Seals interweaves the story of Sam and Amelia’s romance, as well as a nostalgic account of life in the Bay Area in the 1950’s, into the series of mysteries that Sam must solve.  This spellbinding story will inevitably leave readers anxious for the next release in the Sam Slater trilogy, The Deadly Plunge, which will be available in early 2013.
www.gregmessel.com