Friend of the Devil

Bill Walton is driving Dave Pasch crazy. There’s nothing the renowned and respected play-by-play man can do to keep the World’s Tallest Deadhead from going on long, strange rants that have nothing to do with the basketball game they’re announcing. Their night only gets longer and stranger after the game, when Bill discovers that the daughter of a former teammate has been kidnapped. They can’t go to the cops or the FBI, and when Pasch tells Walton there’s a good chance she’ll be killed even if the $10-million ransom is paid, they vow to find Bill’s goddaughter and rescue her before it’s too late. In Friend of the Devil, two basketball announcers trade in their microphones for magnifying glasses as they track down clues by night and, by day, still manage to call a thrilling Pac-12 Tournament in a hilariously sincere psychedelic mystery by James Kirkland.