Review of "Touchdown Duo," by Bill J. Carol

Review of

Touchdown Duo, by Bill J. Carol 

Three out of five stars

 The relationship between the two main characters grows tedious for the reader and should have been handled better. It is set in a high school and Terry Madden is the current quarterback of the football team. However, a boy called “Big Jim” Tompkins has moved into the area and his natural position is also quarterback. While Big Jim’s skills are clearly superior to those of Terry, Big Jim has an infuriating personality as he is always telling the other players how to play their positions.

 This leads to a lot of internal tension and rebelliousness on the team, their performance on the field is often abysmal. Since he is a very fast runner and capable of making sudden moves, Terry is moved to the flanker position, which is really where he should be.

 The emphasis is on the interaction between Big Jim and the other people and coaches of the football team and not the game action. This is not a book about a memorable run to a championship and a winning of the big game at the end, it is a book about an abrasive personality and how it is overcome and tolerated.

 One positive aspect of this book is that it actually has some female characters for the boys to interact with. So many books of adolescent sports fiction ignore female characters interacting with the sports figures. Yet, this is not enough to make the book all that entertaining, it is a good but nowhere great book.