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Loading... One O'Clock Jump: A Dorie Lennox Mystery (original 2001; edition 2001)by Lise McClendon
Work InformationOne O'Clock Jump by Lise McClendon (2001)    None No current Talk conversations about this book.  auntieknickers | Apr 3, 2013 |  no reviews | add a review
Belongs to SeriesDorie Lennox (1) Is contained in
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. No library descriptions found. |
LibraryThing AuthorLise McClendon is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing. Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.33)
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Wikipedia in English
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McClendon gives a good picture of Kansas City in late summer and (as best I can tell, since I wasn't alive then) of life in mid-America on the eve of World War II. True to the title, jazz music plays its part in the story and Count Basie is playing in a local nightspot. McClendon's characters are engaging and mostly believable, as is the plot, although I did get rather annoyed at how often Dorie (who carries a switchblade and seemns a pretty savvy broad)gets ambushed, Shes as good at recovering from these episodes as V. I. Warshawski. I think there are a couple more books in this series and I'll be trying to track them down. Recommended, if you can find it.
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