THE BIRD BOYS

A Delpha Wade and Tom Phelan Mystery

by

Lisa Sandlin

  Genre: Gentle Noir / Mystery / Women Sleuths

Publisher: Cinco Puntos Press

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Date of Publication: August 20, 2019

Number of Pages: 306

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The new novel from award-winning author Lisa Sandlin catches up with the almost-murdered secretary Delpha Wade (The Do-Right, 2015, set in 1973) as she’s released from a hospital in order to be tucked into the back seat of a police cruiser. Her boss, P. I. Tom Phelan, sets out to spring her. He needs her back in his investigation business, where he’ll soon be chasing a skulking grand larcenist and plotting how to keep a ganjapreneur out of the grabby hands of a brand new agency, the D.E.A. Delpha digs through old records and knocks on strange doors to unravel the dangerous case of two brothers with beaucoup aliases—verifying that sometimes truth is not true, but murder is always murder.

Praise

“What makes this crime novel soar is the humanity and humility of its main characters. It is by turns exciting, tender, suspenseful, observant, and gently funny. Readers will eagerly await the next installment.” – Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Sandlin’s sequel soars on the wings of its spot-on evocation of a time and place and its utterly compelling central characters… A first-rate series crying for word-of-mouth support.” – Booklist, Starred Review

“Proving that anything old can be new in the right, talented hands, Sandlin has crafted an outstanding series that readers will want to follow and savor.” – Kirkus, Starred Review

“I confess that as a Beaumonster who remembers that city in the early seventies, the book has a special appeal; Sandlin gets so many details just right. But you don’t have to have lived there to be captivated by The Bird Boys. Its characters, wit, exquisite prose, and sense of redemption are so richly crafted that they’ll stick to most anyone like, well, a shirt to your skin on an August afternoon in Beaumont.” – Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle

Cinco Puntos Press ◆ Octavia Books  ◆  Murder by the Book

Indiebound ◆ Galveston Bookshop  ◆  Book People

    Interabang Books  ◆   Collected Works  ◆ Tattered Cover

I am thrilled to have Lisa Sandlin here today answering a few questions about her writing and inspirations.

How has Texas influenced your writing?

I write about a place and that place is East Texas. The landscape, the weather, the people, the speech, the customs—all have bearing on these last two books I’ve written. The setting is also time, and the year is 1973, so historical events play in: Vietnam, Watergate, the gas shortage, Hank Aaron’s home run record. Gatesville Women’s Prison, whose dates I’ve changed for fictional needs, figures in heavily as background. Sometimes side characters have histories that touch on earlier times in TX.

How long have you been writing?

38 years.

What kind of writing do you do?

Fiction. Novels now.

How do you write? Any backstory to your choice?

I beat a typewriter to death in the early years. Once I got a computer, I never looked back.

Why did you choose to write noir?

I was asked to write a noir story for the Akashic Noir Series. The story I wrote, “Phelan’s First Case,” became “The Do-Right.” I discovered that the darker genre suited me, and that designing the puzzles of a mystery—tough as that is for me—was fun. And then I loved Delpha and Tom.

Where did your love of books, reading, and storytelling come from?

My grandfather told me stories, which I loved, even though some were scary. My father read to me, many of the children’s classics. Very early, I loved the word and the story. A former classmate once recalled to me that in second grade, I stood on the playground, reciting poems.

What cultural value do you see storytelling? 

A deep one. We all narrate our own story, secretly or aloud. It’s how we make sense of our lives, how we manage to construct an extant image of ourselves or a future one, who we’d like to be. Great literature narrates the story of humans: how our psyches work, how family shapes us, how inaction or action defines our characters, our tragedies, and comedies.

While not an official reviewer on this tour, I did receive a copy to read in case I had time to fit it into my schedule.  Find time I did!  This is the second book and while I’m a stickler about reading books in order I decided to read this one anyway since the first book was already checked out at the library.  I’m glad I decided to dive in because there is enough back story provided that I didn’t feel like I was missing much by not reading The Do-Right first.  But I do plan to go back and read it when my schedule lightens up.

There is something about mysteries set in the 1970s where there is no technology, P.I.s seem somewhat seedy or shady, and the overall feel is so much different than what we experience today when it comes to mysteries.  Tom isn’t really seedy or shady but the office is a piece of work.  No slick furniture just whatever can be pieced together so it feels like what you might expect for the time period.  Delpha is more than just his secretary, she is organized and delves into helping Tom on various cases.  Delpha is very organized and it is not a surprise when she uncovers various pieces of information throughout the book to help move them forward.

The cases seem straight forward until Tom and Delpha really dig into the case and question everything they have been told.  What you might have been led to expect is tossed and turned and the truth is revealed.  I was quite surprised at certain facts as they were presented.

The book is heavier than others but that would be the noir aspect of the book.  While this isn’t a genre I read often, it is always nice to switch things up from the ordinary and find a new favorite.

Overall we give this 4 paws up.

Lisa Sandlin is the author of The Do-Right, winner of the Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America and the Hammett Prize from the International Association of Crime Writers. Her new mystery thriller The Bird Boys is set in 1973 in the same town she was born, Beaumont, Texas. Her previous books are The Famous Thing About Death and Message to the Nurse of Dreams, Cinco Puntos Press; In the River Province, SMU Press; and You Who Make the Sky Bend, Pinyon Publishing.

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THREE WINNERS: Choice of eBook or Print Copies of THE BIRD BOYS

August 20-30, 2019

(International – eBooks only)

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