Segueing neatly from the ski slopes of contemporary Wyoming (1999's Nordic Nights) to the Kansas City of Count Basie and FDR's fireside chats, McClendon debuts an excellent historical series, with evocative period dialogue and a story line full of surprises. Iris Jackson is a woman with a secret, but not for long. PI Dorie Lennox, hired to tail the meatpacker's "bar girl," thinks her first solo job is over when Iris jumps into the Missouri River, but this is just the beginning. Background on Iris is hard to find; rummaging through her few belongings yields scant information. Frustrated, Dorie picks up the investigation her partner, a WWI vet suffering from mustard gas poisoning, was working on when he was hospitalized centered on the new racetrack outside Kansas City. With little to go on, Dorie follows what leads she has straight into a web of false identities, cover-ups and fraud. Everyone seems to have at least one secret the crooked lawyer who instructs her to pursue the trail, the meatpacker, the silent partners in the racetrack, even Dorie herself. Layers of lies, pretext and disguise must be peeled back to solve an old mystery before thugs succeed in doing more than simply beating her up. After a somewhat sluggish start, the pace accelerates rapidly, as Dorie moves from hospital to racetrack, to jazz clubs, wisecracking all the way. With a blurb praising Dorie's appeal from Sue Grafton, McClendon (author also of the Alix Thorssen series) seems well poised to make this new series a hit. (Mar. 13)

Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Dorie Lennox, an operative for a PI in Kansas City during the early days of World War II, tails a bargirl for a possibly mob-connected client. Dorie's prey flings herself off a bridge, but the client wants to continue the case. A ransacked room and personal threats galvanize Dorie to action, especially when the client's jealous wife apparently receives a call from the dead jumper, whom Dorie had viewed in the morgue. A convincing re-creation of time, place, and a hard-nosed, emotionally scarred heroine; for all collections. [This is the first in a new series by the author of the Alix Thorssen mysteries, e.g., Nordic Nights.DEd.]
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Dorie Lennox is a newly-minted private detective in Kansas City, Missouri, just as war is breaking out in Europe in 1939. These two novels follow Dorie's adventures through the corrupt back alleys of the city, from jazz clubs to meatpacking plants, in her $25 Packard with bullet holes in the trunk. Dorie is damaged goods, a veteran of reform school and family tragedy, like many children of the Depression. But her boss, a Brit with ruined lungs, has no choice to send her out on the streets with her switchblade, tailing girlfriends and wayward daughters, trying to make the world safe again. First published by St. Martin's Press, bestselling authors had much praise for the books. Michael Connelly wrote: “Wonderful. . . a richly detailed story that quite simply gets to your heart. Lise McClendon expertly probes the mystery of human desires."” Bestseller Sue Grafton said: “One O’Clock Jump is like a time capsule, transporting a tale of murder, greed, and intrigue from vintage Kansas City into the present day. Doris Lennox is a humdinger of a private eye." Library Journal recommended the books: "A convincing re-creation of time, place, and a hard-nosed, emotionally scarred heroine; for all collections." Publisher's Weekly praised the books: "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." Bonus material! Read the Dorie Lennox short story, Snow Train, that takes place in December 1941, just weeks after Pearl Harbor. **

Review

Lise McClendon's complex, cleverly crafted mystery keeps reader's attention throughout the novel. A new winning series that will please historical mystery fans.      -- Harriet Klausner Wonderful, a richly detailed story that gets to your heart. Lise McClendon expertly probes the mystery of human desires with a character so real you will swear you are riding in the Packard next to her.      -- Michael Connelly, bestselling author

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From Library Journal Dorie Lennox, an operative for a PI in Kansas City during the early days of World War II, tails a bargirl for a possibly mob-connected client. A convincing re-creation of time, place, and a hard-nosed, emotionally scarred heroine; for all collections. From Book List McClendon plays the World War II swing era for all its worth (Count Basie makes a cameo), and the switchblade-packing Lennox displays plenty of grit in that pants-wearing, Rosie the Riveter kind of way. A solidly put together, reasonably evocative period piece. Lennox bears watching.  From Publishers Weekly From the Kansas City of Count Basie and FDR's fireside chats, McClendon debuts an excellent historical series, with evocative period dialogue and a story line full of surprises. [On One O'clock Jump] 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. 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.  [On Sweet and Lowdown]

From the Author

One of my favorite characters appears in this box set: Dorie Lennox, a newly-minted private detective in Kansas City between the wars. She has a troubled past and relies on a switchblade to protect herself from the thugs and men about town on the dark streets of the city.  I lived in Kansas City for a couple years (proud UMKC grad!) and loved the tales of the Pendergast era, the old mansions built by corrupt politicians, the lost blocks torn down and rebuilt again and again. There is so much history in this town but much of it is paved over so we must use our imaginations to go back to the era of trains and streetcars, old downtown and the meatpackers, to the worry of wartime.  Dorie's story begins with One O'clock Jump, named for the Count Basie tune. A bargirl takes a flyer off the Hannibal Bridge and creates a good headline for a Kansas City Star reporter. But for Dorie the woman's end is just the beginning.
Sweet and Lowdown is an homage to Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep. It's set in 1940, the year Chandler's famous mystery appeared in print, and finally we find out what happened to the chauffeur, a mystery Chandler never solved himself. As PW said: 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.)  After many years of prodding and pleading from a fan I wrote one more Dorie Lennox tale, a short story that takes place just after Pearl Harbor in 1941. War is on, but for Dorie, well, it's complicated. It takes place on a train ride between St. Louis and Kansas City in the middle of a blizzard: that is Snow Train. I hope you enjoy the box set. To keep up with more of my books please consider joining the newsletter list at Mailchimp: eepurl.com/A6bsD