Halfway around the world, war has begun, but for Dorie Lennox, a newly-minted private-eye on her first tail, danger is more immediate. The dark streets of Kansas City of 1939 offer swing music, fast cars, gangsters, and the chance to forget about the Depression and her own murky past. But first Dorie must conquer her fears and save a woman on a bridge high above the muddy Missouri. When the woman takes a dive, Dorie is thrown into a quickly unraveling scam that offers salvation to few - and misery to plenty - in the high stakes world of machine politics and desperation deals. Lennox's path to Kansas City is full of detours, a brush with the law, a lost family, an aborted university and track career. But she's found a home of sorts in the Italian neighborhood of the Market, in a boardinghouse full of souls as lost and quirky as her own. Her switchblade goes everywhere with her, even as a rabbit's foot for luck, and sometimes as much more. Her boss, Amos Haddam, was a British soldier in World War I. Lost behind the lines he was gassed and has the scarred lungs to prove it. When he lands in the hospital, Lennox must carry the ball, clearing Haddam's name and finding who is playing her for a sucker. With vivid, sure prose and sharp dialogue, the world of Dorie Lennox comes alive, behind the wheel of her Packard, into the packinghouses, race tracks, and mansions of Kansas City. The landscape of America, the homefront of World War II, is evoked in a thoughtful, forceful mystery that lingers for the force of characters and keen sharpness of a slice of history through the perceptive, compassionate eyes of Dorie Lennox.

One O'Clock Jump: A Dorie Lennox Mystery

Literature & Fiction

McClendon, Lise

United States

Minotaur Books

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.

Sweet and Lowdown: A Dorie Lennox Mystery

Jackson Hole, Wyoming, art gallery owner Alix Thorssen stirs up dark secrets from the past when she investigates the twenty-five-year-old death of Derek Wylie at the request of eccentric artist Queen Johns, a case that becomes complicated by the killing of a wolf on ranch land and a power struggle for control of the Teton Land Trust auction. Reprint.

Bluewolf

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

Worldwide Library

Lost in Lavender: a Bennett Sisters Mystery (Bennett Sisters Mysteries)

Genre Fiction

Thalia Press

Deep in the cold heart of a Wyoming winter lies a dark tale of theft, murder, art, and archeology in this third entry in the Alix Thorssen mystery series. A visiting Norwegian artist comes to Alix’s gallery and is soon found dead. Bad enough for Jackson Hole’s winter carnival but for Alix it’s worse. Her stepfather, builder of a magnificent model Viking ship, is accused of murder and refuses to defend himself. With ancient myths seeming to come to life around her, Alix’s investigation could end with a Viking funeral. It all hinges on what the runes say.After The Bluejay Shaman and Painted Truth, Lise McClendon proves there is nothing cold about Norwegians in Nordic Nights. A sexy skier, a naughty ice carving, and a mysterious fortune teller make a visit to Jackson Hole a chilling puzzle."In Nordic Nights, Lise McClendon gives us a good idea, a wonderful setting, and skillful writing. You'll like it." -- Tony Hillerman, bestselling authorSavvy readers will enjoy the glimpses of Nordic ritual, the vivid descriptions of the Wyoming winter, and the pattern of fire and ice as Alix's emotions fight logic and the heated passions around her fight icy greed. -- Kirkus ReviewsSet in wintry Jackson Hole, Wyo., this crisp, straightforward mystery plunges gallery owner Alix Thorssen into the local Nordic Nights festival, which features ice carving, a parade, ski races-- And a startling murder. Famous Norwegian painter Glasius Dokken, who had come to town for his show at Alix's gallery, is found stabbed with an ice pick in the hotel room of an itinerant and provocative fortune-teller. Alix, persistent and unflappable, begins to investigate. McClendon works a good deal of Nordic folklore into her story. The fortune-teller is a specialist in runes, and her silver-and-wood tools quickly become a central point in the case: Are the runes museum quality? Have they been stolen? The third entry in the McClendon's series conjures up the icy beauty of Jackson Hole. Her agreeably feisty heroine and a hair-raising finale will keep readers entertained throughout the night, Nordic or otherwise. --Publisher's Weekly

Nordic Nights: An Alix Thorssen Mystery (Alix Thorssen Mystery Series)

Blue Wolf: an Alix Thorssen mystery (Alix Thorssen Mystery Series)

Alix Thorssen finds her attentions divided between the dangerous worlds of kayaking and art when the greed, jealousies, and machinations behind a gallery showing violently and unexpectedly explode in murder

Painted Truth: An Alix Thorssen Mystery (Walker Mystery)

Walker Co

When her stepfather is accused of the murder of Norwegian artist Glasius Dokken, art dealer Alix Thorssen takes it upon herself to clear his name, only to find her own life in danger.

Nordic Nights: An Alix Thorssen Mystery

Jackson Hole, Wyoming, art gallery owner Alix Thorssen stirs up dark secrets from the past when she investigates the twenty-five-year-old death of Derek Wylie at the request of eccentric artist Queen Johns.

Blue Wolf: An Alix Thorssen Mystery

The sequel to the much-loved Blackbird Fly is here at last! Merle Bennett is spending another summer in France, vacationing with her four sisters and one friend, lawyers all, tramping around the backroads of the Dordogne. The sixth member of their walking tour is a law colleague, Gillian Sargent. She hasn't made a good impression on the Bennett sisters, being annoying and secretive and upsetting the delicate karma of sisterhood. When Gillian finds an injured dog along the roadside and wants to keep it for her own, the idyllic summer trip of sisterly bonding and wine-drinking turns dark and dangerous. Who else is after this dog? Why is she so special? And what secret is Gillian Sargent keeping so close to her chest that her co-workers call her 'The Girl in the Empty Dress?'  Lise McClendon introduced Merle Bennett in Blackbird Fly, taking readers on a journey of self-discovery for Merle as her late husband's life opened up its secrets. He left her a stone house in the Dordogne he never mentioned, his family estate. Merle's efforts to fix up the abandoned ruin, extract a squatter, and discover the family secrets help her through her grief. Now, back in this corner of southwest France of dark, oaky wine, rocky hills, foie gras and earthy truffles, she juggles sibling bickering, her teenage son, two boyfriends, and the law. All she wants is to unwind in the golden light of France. But France has a few tricks up its sleeves again. Thanks to a sad, dirty little dog and a woman with too many secrets.

The Girl in the Empty Dress (Bennett Sisters Mysteries)

Tate, Rory

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