Q: At the beginning of Billy Crawford’s Double Play (Wolsak & Wynn, 2025), the protagonist states that he cares nothing about politics and never has cared about it. What makes Billy change his mind?
A: One might think that Billy changes his mind about the tawdry game of politics because he gets to see it up close and personal. As Mark Twain once noted, “Politicians and diapers should be changed often – and for the same reason.” But that is not why Billy changes his outlook. He becomes involved with Jessie and the better he gets to know her, the more he begins to see the world through her eyes, and he realizes how a certain politician’s corrupt motives will affect Jessie personally. She could lose the something dear to her – her family farm. It’s that realization that finally compels Billy to take the political landscape seriously—and to take action. O— as Freddy Mercury sang—it’s that crazy little thing called love.
About Billy Crawford’s Double Play (Wolsak & Wynn, 2025):
Everything is legal – if you can get away with it.
Billy Crawford is a hero. The star of the Rose City Rounders, the baseball player has been thrilling fans of the city for years. But Billy’s not as young as he used to be and his tendency to play hard is catching up with him. A string of losses for the Rounders puts his position at risk as the team’s owner, local developer Carroll Miller, doesn’t like being associated with anything that loses. Miller’s thinking of making changes, and not just at the team. When he decides to enter politics Billy suddenly finds himself facing an offer he can’t refuse.
In this wise-cracking, fast-paced novel, Brad Smith lampoons today’s scandal-ridden politics and politicians. But among the laughter, Smith also shows us there can be hope, and even integrity, where we least expect it.
Award-winning author Brad Smith is a novelist and screenwriter, born and raised in southern Ontario. Billy Crawford’s Double Play is his fifteenth novel. His 2019 novel – The Return of Kid Cooper – won the Spur Award for Best Western Traditional Novel from the Western Writers of America. His novels One-Eyed Jacks and Copperhead Road were shortlisted for the Dashiell Hammett Prize. He adapted his book All Hat to feature film, starring Keith Carradine and Luke Kirby. He now lives in a ninety-year-old farmhouse near the north shore of Lake Erie, where he tinkers, respectively, on his vintage cars and his golf swing.