Lisa Sandlin-The Bird Boys



After a serial killer almost murdered Delpha Wade (The Do-Right, 2015), the county hospital releases her into the handcuffs of the city police for questioning. The reason is she killed the man who was trying to kill her, and she is, after all, an ex-con. It's still Beaumont, 1970s, and mindsets don't change along the Texas Gulf Coast. Her boss, the neophyte private detective Tom Phelan, awaits her, and soon they are once again in deep shit. It seems like an easy case--one Bird brother looking for the long-lost other--but it turns out that one brother is a murderer. He likes to slit throats. But which one? Maybe the young girl who sees into the dark places of human hearts can help. But only Delpha is wise enough to listen.



Lisa Sandlin-The Do-Right



Overview: 1959. Delpha Wade killed a man who was raping her. Wanted to kill the other one too, but he got away. Now, after fourteen years in prison, she’s out. It’s 1973, and nobody’s rushing to hire a parolee. Persistence and smarts land her a secretarial job with Tom Phelan, an ex-roughneck turned neophyte private eye. Together these two pry into the dark corners of Beaumont, a blue-collar, Cajun-influenced town dominated by Big Oil. A mysterious client plots mayhem against a small petrochemical company-why? Searching for a teenage boy, Phelan uncovers the weird lair of a serial killer. And Delpha — on a weekend outing — looks into the eyes of her rapist, the one who got away. The novel's conclusion is classic noir, full of surprise, excitement, and karmic justice. Sandlin's elegant prose, twisting through the dark thickets of human passion, allows Delpha to open her heart again to friendship, compassion, and sexuality.