Book News
NBA ref’s expose canceled.
Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy’s expose, “Blowing the Whistle,” will not be published by Triumph Books, an imprint of Random House, after “independent evaluation” of some of his allegations.
Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months in prison in July 2008 for his role in a betting scandal, including accepting money from a gambler in exchange for inside information on NBA games.
“After a close legal review of the final manuscript of “Blowing the Whistle” by Tim Donaghy, and our independent evaluation of some of the author’s sources and statements, Triumph Books and Random House have decided not to go forward with the book’s publication.
“Our decision is wholly our own and was made without consultation with any outside parties or individuals,” Random House spokesman Stuart Applebaum said.
The book was scheduled for release at the beginning of the NBA season but was canceled “several weeks ago,” Applebaum said. The NBA denied threatening Random House with a lawsuit, league spokesman Tim Frank said.
First Lines
Broken Jewel, by David L. Robbins
Remy Tuck had not seen his own reflection in three weeks. He’d lost his shaving mirror in a poker game to a man with jaundice. Remy hadn’t tried to win the mirror back. Lately, he played only for food.
He sat under a giant dao tree near the barbed wire, rolling dice on a plank. The faces of the internees around him told him enough of what he must look like. Scooped-eyed and hollow-cheeked, three of them bet with Remy for the prize of an egg, while the rest read or dozed. One of the gamblers, a former mechanic for Pan Am, tipped his sharp chin up away from their game. Remy stopped rattling the dice to gaze through the dao’s branches into the dispersing mist of a warm December morning. The far-off hum of an American plane — the Japanese had no presence anymore in the Philippine sky — added its burr to the calls of birds and insects in the scrub and bamboo inside the camp, the jungle outside it. Remy put down the dice. The whine of the airplane shifted to a higher tone. Something dived their way.
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Publishers Weekly
