Steve Brackeen’s, aka John Farris’s, Baby Moll tells the tale of a former mob tough guy who’s dragged away from the normal life he’s built for himself to help his former boss survive the attentions of an assassin. It seems that years ago the bossman torched a building and a young girl survived with burns. The girl has grown up and is presumably behind the murder attempts. But the book isn’t really focused on her, which makes Barye Phillips’ excellent cover art and the accompanying tagline a bit misleading. The various women spend little time on the page. Baby Moll is really about how the protagonist goes about his investigation. There’s a good amount of action and an assortment of interesting characters, but we wouldn’t go so far as to call the book either exceptional or well written. It’s okay. It goes in the South Florida crime bin, so the setting might be enough to put it over for many readers.
1938—Seabiscuit Defeats War Admiral
At Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore, Maryland, the thoroughbred stallion Seabiscuit defeats the Triple Crown champion War Admiral in a match race that had been promoted as “The match of the Century” in horse racing. The victory made Seabiscuit a symbol of triumph against the odds during the dark days of the Depression, and his story became the subject of a 1949 film, a 2001 book, and a 2003 film, Seabiscuit, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.