Sweet and Lowdown: A Dorie Lennox Mystery - Hardcover

McClendon, Lise

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312286899 ISBN 13: 9780312286897

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2002

Synopsis

Europe is at war. Nazi bombers are hammering London. Wendell Willkie is giving Roosevelt a run for his money. In Kansas City, Dorie and her partner Amos are trying to keep the blonde and beautiful Thalia Hines from destroying herself. It's not easy. The girl has every reason to escape the cold stone mansion where her mother lies dying. Eveline Hines was a decorated war nurse during the First World War. Now she's struggling to protect her only daughter from men who lust over her inheritance even more than her curves. An old friend of Amos', Eveline is slipping away from cancer while her daughter carouses in the swank nightclubs and back alley bars of the city.

Like The Big Sleep another mystery surfaces.

In the rich milieu of a bygone time, themes as far-reaching as American fascists, a third-term president, and an America preparing for war, provide color for the intimate portrait of a powerful woman bearing witness to the destruction of all she loves. For the Hines family, nothing will ever be the same in this powerful story of maternal love and family secrets and the disastrous attempts to mingle them.

Sweet and Lowdown is a historical mystery full of darkness and the peculiar heartache of the wayward child a story that will stay with the reader long after the book is closed.

About this title

About the Author:

Lise McClendon lives in Montana with her husband and sons.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this worthy sequel to One O'Clock Jump (2001), set in the fall of 1940, Britain stands alone against Hitler, FDR is making a bid for a third term as president and Nazi spies have infiltrated American political groups to promote isolationism. In Kansas City, PI Dorie Lennox and her partner, Amos Haddam, are tailing Thalia Hines, the wayward 21-year-old daughter of a prominent local family. (Not the least of this mystery's myriad pleasures is the author's tip of the hat to Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep.) Dorie takes over investigating the men in Thalia's life after Amos becomes preoccupied with a refugee from London and a series of anonymous threats to the Negro League Monarchs baseball team the week before a postseason game against the KC Blues. When someone tries to kidnap Thalia and a dead body turns up, Dorie gets caught in the backlash. Meanwhile, as the pressure on the Monarchs builds, race riots may break out at any time. McClendon lightly handles all the threads, using a taut, staccato style that perfectly complements her edgy, skittish heroine. ("She lighted a Lucky and leaned against the wall by the ladies' lounge. She'd seen the inside of too many nightclubs. In the dark, where anything can happen, and usually did.") The author masterfully evokes the period, from details of dress to a rally for Wendell Willkie. This is a book to be savored read it too fast and you might miss something.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0312286899
• ISBN 13: 9780312286897
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288