Killshot

By Tom Alibrandi

Book Overview

Killshot Tate Coldiron, in his early fifties, with a Jack Daniel's Green habit and two withered legs, has his car break down in Rochester, NY on his way to handball tournament in Cleveland. A former championship handball player; whose legs were broken 25 years earlier for hustling the wrong opponent; Coldiron has survived since by playing match games for money. Coldiron hustles a local player for a few bucks, in doing so seeing potential in the raw, but talented Barry West. He makes West an offer to train him and take him on the road to play match games for money against the best players in the country. West, tired of his job and life in Rochester, and with support from his girlfriend, Susan, agrees. Following a rigorous training period, during which Coldiron transforms his young prot g into a superior handball player, the two go on the road. Barry West puts together a fabulous string of victories, bringing in tens of thousands of dollars. However, Coldiron's handball student resorts to doing anything to win, including hitting other players with the ball that travels over a hundred miles per hour. And West's need to win at any cost supersedes his love for Susan, and his allegiance to Coldiron. After West maims a few more players-including some of Coldiron's old handball friends-Tate, guided by his love for the purity of the game, decides he must take West out. He is forced to destroy the winning machine he created. It all comes down to one explosive and exciting match. It is winner takes all; a matter of love, life, and death.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1540741818
• ISBN13: 9781540741813
• Release Date: December 2016
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Needs to Be a Movie

When I first read this back in the mid 70s, I saw Paul Newman and Robert Redford playing the principle characters. Newman's dead, and Redford's frankly too old to play 'the kid', but the STORY is great and begs to be adapted to a screenplay. Basically a mentor/apprentice story like 'Butch Cassidy' and 'The Sting' (hence the immediate casting of Newman and Redford). It revolves around high stakes handball, long before 'The Color of Money' (another Newman classic). The elder gent was once the best at the sport, playing after hours in a variety of YMCA courts, but crossed the wrong people and got his legs broken. He finds 'the kid' who has a natural talent for the game, but is undisciplined. After months of grooming, they take the show on the road and begin to rake in the cash. Too late the master realizes he's created a monster because the kid will do anything to win a match - even maim an opponent with a literal 'kill shot'.