“Captures Providence’s unique character where ‘wheeling and dealing’ is the form of government and the citizenry tolerate rogue politicians so long as ‘t’ings go right.” ―Robert Knightly, author of The Cold Room and Bodies in Winter and editor of Queens Noir (Robert Knightly)

“J.J. Partridge makes a claim to membership in an exclusive club of Providence linked writers, with H.P. Lovecraft and S.J.Perelman.” ―Mark Arsenault, author of Gravewriter, Spiked, and Speak Ill of the Living (Mark Arsenault)

“Partridge adroitly weaves together the different plot points of this witty and well-written whodunit.” ―Publishers Weekly starred review

When Algy Temple, pool player, sleuth and Ivy League university lawyer, investigates the highly suspicious death of a retired university don, his contemporaneous involvement in a high stakes pool tournament in Providence becomes a tiresome, contentious obligation that must be endured. As he delves into the life of the deceased, he unexpectedly finds himself on a path that leads him to Rome, the vendetta-ridden Boot of Italy and into a haunted past of corruption and conspiracy with a linkage to the tournament, gambling, shylocks, and mobsters unexpected even in Providence where old world shadows hang heavy in the air. Add an abduction, a Ponzi, an outraged Italo-American community locked in a culture war with the University, a hustler's last gambit for recognition, and a fiancé focused on their wedding in two weeks, his investigation becomes a match of wits with a dead man, and a pool wager of life and death.

J.J. Partridge:

An astute observer of academia politics and politicians, and pool, J.J. Partridge's novels illuminate academic sensibilities and campus foibles, political turf wars and ethnic tensions, civic sleaziness, gaming's relationship with Native Americans, and particularly the murky world of the sport of pool, both amateur and professional. "Carom Shot" and "Straight Pool" are the prior titles in the Algy Temple mysteries; "Scratched" continues the series. J.J. Partridge's distinguished career practicing law provides experience with Providence's high times and low lifes.