Murdered Twenty-Five Years Ago, The Manager's Daughter, Is Still Alive - Outrageous! But Then People Start Dying.
With an unsavory reputation and sex appeal in spades, underage Fran Mullen, the daughter of the tyrannical manager of a minor league baseball team, is found brutally raped and murdered in the dugout before a game. A local suspect who is employed by the team is tried and released, much to the consternation of the local community who are convinced of his guilt. Twenty-five years later an idealistic young reporter with career ambitions and a passing resemblance to Fran makes an outrageous claim: Fran Mullen is still alive! The reporter plans to do a major story on this wild revelation revealing new evidence. As the allegation ripples through a small minor league baseball town, ex-players, front office personnel and even Fran's own father have reasons to fear her improbable return. Everyone dismisses the claim that Fran is alive, but when people start dying there is no denying that something is horribly wrong.
"Matthew Kastel's THE MANAGER'S DAUGHTER is a frenetic tale of murder ... set in and around the world of minor league baseball. Kastel's imaginative cast of characters ... all have something to hide.... Kastel's story is minor league in setting only. It's a major league yarn that puts the reader deep inside the inner workings of small town, professional baseball. With the outcome uncertain until the very end, THE MANAGER'S DAUGHTER offers more twists and turns than a Ruben Rivera run around the bases."-David B. Stinson, Author of 'Deadball, A Metaphysical Baseball Novel.'