Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 1988 February #1 Quarrington is the Canadian author of the well-received Life of Hope and Home Game. His success in this entertaining fourth novel is not only creating a memorable character in Canadiens' hockey champion Patrick Leary, ``King of the Ice'' for most of the first half of the 20th century, but also surrounding him with equally memorable companions. There's Clay Clinton, a likable though Machiavellian con artist-cum-hockey manager, and Leary's best friend; gormless Clifford, King's obese, amiable son, who seems to have inherited some of his father's inability to see reality; Manny Oz, King's challenger for the crown who died ignominiously and alone in a hotel room; Blue Hermann, King's roommate in the nursing home, ace reporter and alcoholic; and the hockey-playing monks of Bowmanville Reformatory, where Leary's career begins. In an odyssey that takes the King from past to present, and from Bywater to Toronto to make a ginger ale ``advert,'' the ghosts and half-truths of Leary's life are satisfyingly resolved. (March) Copyright 1988 Cahners Business Information.
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