Hornig, Doug 1943-

(Peter Caine)

PERSONAL: Born November 19, 1943, in New York, NY; son of Douglas C. (an engineer) and Yvonne (a nurse; maiden name, Franco) Hornig. Education: George Washington University, B.A., 1965.

ADDRESSES: Home—Rte. 3, Box 482, Afton, VA.

CAREER: Writer. Worked variously as a factory worker, journalist, taxi driver, computer programmer, delivery man, census taker, bar singer, warehouseman, bookstore clerk, food buyer, photographer, and swimming pool attendant.

AWARDS, HONORS: Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination, Mystery Writers of America, 1985, for Foul Shot; Best Mystery Award nomination, Private Eye Writers of America, 1986, for Hardball; first prize, Virginia Governor's Screenwriting Competition, 1990, for Reunion.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Foul Shot, Scribner (New York, NY), 1984.

Hardball, Scribner (New York, NY), 1985.

The Dark Side, Mysterious Press (New York, NY), 1986.

Waterman, Mysterious Press (New York, NY), 1987.

Deep Dive, Mysterious Press (New York, NY), 1988.

(Under pseudonym Peter Caine) Virus, New American Library (New York, NY), 1989.

Stinger, New American Library (New York, NY), 1990.

OTHER

Reunion (screenplay), 1990.

The Boys of October: How the 1975 Boston Red Sox Embodied Baseball's Ideals—and Restored Our Spirits, Contemporary Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Work represented in anthologies, including Today's Greatest Poems, World of Poetry Press, 1983; American Poetry Anthology, Volume III, American Poetry Association, 1984; and National Poetry Anthology, New York Poetry Society, 1985.

Contributor to periodicals, including Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Albany Review, Wooster Review, Bogg, Slipstream, Amelia, Footwork, Samisdat, Business Week, Writer, Gadfly, Playboy, and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

Contributing editor, What We Now Know, an e-mail newsletter from Casey Research.

SIDELIGHTS: In his detective novels about Virginia private investigator Loren Swift, Doug Hornig has created a character whose experience of the 1960s and 1970s has shaped his outlook on life. Swift's cases, wrote Robert E. Skinner in the St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, are "peppered with references to rock groups and other pop culture icons of that period. His idea of a good time is playing old records, and admiring his collection of rock posters. It should come as no surprise that with this background, Swift is a political liberal. Hornig emphasizes that by having his creation draw parallels between the things he sees currently on the national scene and those he remembers from his earlier life. References to the dirty deeds of Nixon, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman abound."

Writing in the New York Times Book Review, Newgate Callendar called Loren Swift "smart and industrious; he indulges in the self-analysis almost de rigeur these days; he philosophizes quite a bit; but the man does not have much flair or color." Skinner admitted that Swift is "idealistic and naive almost to a fault." But he found that "Hornig tells a passable tale, and he has no trouble inventing a credible mystery. His exposition of the story is enhanced by his ability to bring the Virginia countryside vibrantly to life. It is, in fact, his choice of rural Virginia as a backdrop that makes it nearly unique."

In The Boys of October: How the 1975 Boston Red Sox Embodied Baseball's Ideals—and Restored our Spirits, Hornig revisits his theme of nostalgia, this time in real-life form, as he recounts the legendary 1975 baseball World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds. In that year, the country was still suffering from much political and social turmoil, and the twin shadows of Vietnam and the Watergate scandal made baseball seem of little importance. By the end of the year, however, thanks to the riveting clash between the Sox and the Reds, baseball has once again become the national pastime, and attention was focused on the sport. The 1975 World Series "may have been the best ever played," commented Booklist reviewer Wes Lukowsky. As the Sox advanced through the series, Hornig was working as a cab driver in Boston, and so he experienced all the hometown excitement surrounding the team. In his book, he combines his reminiscences with interviews and profiles of Red Sox team members, who look back at the game with more than two decades of hindsight. Among his subjects are Bill Lee, known as the Spaceman; Cuban pitcher Luis Tiant, Hall of Fame outfielder Carl "Yaz" Yastrzemski; Red Sox coach and manager Don Zimmer; and Bernie Carbo, who fought alcoholism and drug addiction but who later had a religious conversion. The "true joy of baseball, so fully captured by … Hornig, is that anything can happen—and does," commented New York Times Book Review contributor Abbott Combes. Lukowsky observed that Hornig's account will be "treasured by older fans" who remember the 1975 game and who also idolize the players of that time period.

Hornig once told CA: "In an era of increasing compartmentalization of authors, I prefer to be known simply as a writer. My published novels include mysteries, thrillers, and a police procedural/medical/horror hybrid. I've also published poetry, short stories (mystery, science fiction, mainstream), and magazine articles."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, 4th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1996.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 2003, Wes Lukowsky, review of The Boys of October: How the 1975 Boston Red Sox Embodied Baseball's Ideals—and Restored our Spirits, p. 1031.

Library Journal, February 1, 2003, Paul Kaplan and Robert C. Cottrell, review of The Boys of October, p. 88.

New York Times Book Review, November 30, 1986, Newgate Callendar, review of The Dark Side, p. 20; May 25, 2003, Abbott Combes, "A Season on the Brink," review of The Boys of October, p. 12.

Washington Post Book World, December 15, 1985, review of Hardball, p. 6.