Sweet and Lowdown — Lise McClendon

A story that will stay with the reader long after the book is closed Europe is at War. Nazi bombers are hammering London. Wendell Willkie is giving Roosevelt a run for his money. In Kansas City, Dorie Lennox and her partner Amos Haddam are trying to keep the blond 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 is a decorated war hero 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. In the rich milieu of a bygone time, an America preparing for war provides 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 peculiar heartache of the wayward child, a story that will stay with the reader long after the book is closed. “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.” -- PW "Lise McClendon created the memorable [Dorie Lennox] in last year's One O'Clock Jump and brings her back for a lively second round in Sweet and Lowdown. McClendon turns the tables on some hardboiled cliches to great effect, but what really makes the book work is her unexpectedly moving characterizations, along with her ability to convey the simultaneous sorrow, uncertainty and excitement of wartime. Maintaining the tough attitude of a Chandler-era P.I. while building emotional depth is not an easy juggling act to pull off, but McClendon is up to the challenge." - The Washington Post