Gripper — Ashna Graves

The dark side of college championship sports hits the news far too often, highlighting a world of driven coaches, academic cheating, rule-breaking boosters, and failed dreams. In a new mystery by the author of the acclaimed Death Pans Out, the murder of a star basketball forward propels journalist Neva Leopold into the troubled heart of this deeply competitive world. The boosters “want to touch us, they want to put their hands on us, to feel our muscles,” player Frankie Budd tells Neva, his hand cinching tight on her shoulder. “That's why we call them grippers. That's why I hate the bastards. That's why I took everything I could get.” Cars, cash, housing, travel, clothes, passing grades -- the players get it all while they're hot. But when it's over, when the scholarships end and 98.8% of the players fail to make the NBA draft, what happens then? What happens when they go from being heroes to nobodies overnight and find themselves wielding a broom instead of a basketball? Is such a downfall grounds for murder? Or is the gripper situation at PAC-12 Conference member Valley State University a long way -- a very long way -- out of hand?