Purple Phantoms

Rating: 5.0 stars

Reviewed by Alice D. for Readers Favorite

Five talented young basketball players from Rockwood High in Georgia were all killed at different times and in different ways but much too young to die. Now they have been given a chance to come back to Earth for six months to play basketball once again and help  Rockwood's currently losing basketball team, the 'Purple Phantoms', and their beloved Coach, Mr. Jones, who plans on leaving Rockwood at the end of the coming year. Five young phantom basketball players, Sharon James, "JB" Brown, Dan Gnais, Walter Williams and Ivan "Pick" Brown, miss human emotions, the aroma of sweat and the noise of cheering crowds. Sharon joins with former boyfriend, Foots Wilkins, JB with Norris Nairse, Dan with Antoine Carter, Walter with Greg Reece, and Pick with Vincent Matthews, slipping in and out of their bodies, whispering words of encouragement and coaching them to play better and perhaps win the State Championship.

"Phantoms of Rockwood" is a very well-written well-edited story of a high school basketball coach, his current unsuccessful team, and deceased basketball players from Rockwood High School's past who played the game brilliantly. The plot flows smoothly to the end as the living players come to terms with what needs changing in their lives and in their game as Coach Jones talks with the five dead players whom he still loves, misses terribly and will defend even if it costs him his job. All characters, both living and ghostly, are three-dimensional; they come alive as the story progresses. Knowing that the five phantom players must go back to their place in Heaven and take another with them is  a difficult,a somewhat teary ending . The addition of a sixth phantom is hinted at throughout the last chapters so that the reader will know what is coming. "Phantoms of Rockwood" is a brilliant book that young adults and adult readers will adore.
 

EDITED BY DENNIS DE ROSE . MONEYSAVER EDITING

Now published in trade paper in Amazon..