Discussion Questions for Book Clubs

What do you think of the way Major League Baseball behaved when the US entered World War I?
What do you think really happened at Camp Hancock? Would the Army and the government have responded in the way the author suggests?
Did the descriptions and dialogue in the book make you feel as if you were "present" in each of the three time periods -- World War I, the 1930s, and the present day?
How good a job did the author do of drawing you in to participate in the solution of the mystery?
What were your most and least favorite aspects of this book?

Do you think there truly might have been -- or might still be -- a secret group of insiders who try to protect the image of Major League baseball?
From what you know of baseball history, if they did exist, can you guess from the codenames in the book who some of those insiders -- the GameKeepers -- might have been?
How much do you think we really know about the scandals in baseball -- or any professional sport -- today or in the past?
What did you think of the political strategy used by the Senator to gain control of Major League Baseball? Do you think the GameKeepers have a plan to keep him under control?
How good a job did the author do of hiding, and then helping you find, the archive with all of baseball's darkest secrets?

So, what do you  think? Did Abner Doubleday really invent baseball?
Why do you think Albert Spalding would have settled on Doubleday to proclaim as the inventor of the game?
The author uses some literary devices in developing his plot. For example, he alternates back and forth  between time periods and tells what seem to be separate stories at the same time, then weaves them together as the book goes along. What do you think of this style?
How good a job does the author do of blending true history with fictional action, and blending events of the past into a present-day plot?
Does the author make you want to know more about the history of baseball? About the characters in the story?

How good a job did the author do of describing life in a big law firm? A small law practice?
Were you able to follow all of the legal maneuvering as the case developed?
How about the characters -- Andy Dennum and Keiley Barefoot? Were they believable? Sympathetic? Joey Coy? And the Commissioner? Were they realistic?
What did you learn here about the early years of Major League Baseball?  Do you think the game is any different behind the scenes today?
If you were Andy Dennum, would you be satisfied with the way this story ended?

How hard do you think it really is legally to dig holes in a National Park and National Historic Site to search for a buried treasure? Did the author convince you it could be done?
Were you able to follow all of the procedural twists and turns in the story? What did you think of the way Andy Dennum went about making his case?
What did you learn about Thomas Edison that you didn't know before reading this book?
How good a job did the author do of tying the story to actual work that Edison was doing at the time, for example, on new designs for storage batteries?
The author has described the endings of his books as "definitive ambiguity." What do you think he means by that? Does the ending of this story fit that characterization?

The Deadball Files: Discussion Questions for Book Clubs