An Edgar Award finalist in the year it was published, the reputation of this novel has only increased over the years, and it is now regarded by many as one of the best sports mysteries ever written, and one of the best books about baseball.   It tells the story of Frank Lofton, an itinerant reporter obsessed with a minor league team in a Massachusetts mill town. The town is plagued by arson, and with the burning city as a backdrop, Lofton follows his obsession, leading him from the mysterious death of a struggling ballplayer, to the owner's beautiful mistress, into an underworld of corruption and deceit.