This is the long-lost, never-before-published fourth book in Jimmy Sangster's wickedly inventive, darkly funny, and critically acclaimed "James Reed" series of crime novels.Ex-cop James Reed is a self-styled beach bum, living in the Malibu house he scored in the divorce settlement from his brief marriage to a famous actress. Life should be easy...but he has terrible luck. His first date with a woman he meets on a tennis court goes very, very bad, getting him beaten, accused of murder, and pursued by killers. And that's just in one night. Now he's trapped in nightmare of sex, blackmail and murder...and to get out, he must go to New York...and worm his way into the rotten core of the Big Apple.

Praise for Snowball, Blackball, and Hardball

"Crammed full of sex, drugs and Hollywood. This book is a bright evocation of La-La-Land. Welcome Mr. Reed. Come back soon." Hartford Courant

"Adept plotting and achingly human characters." Booklist

"An unusually shaped plot and vivid characters." Kirkus Reviews

"Excellently plotted and paced. Sangster constructs an intricate problem and lets his intelligent, complex hero loose to solve it." Publishers Weekly

"Read a couple of these James Reed novels and author Jimmy Sangster could get to be a habit." Anniston Star

"This is a fast-moving, funny, sexy -- very sexy -- story. James Reed is a very charming character." The Orlando Sentinel