THE DO-RIGHT WINS HAMMETT AWARD

Lisa Sandlin’s Debut Novel The Do-Right 

Wins 2016 Hammett Award

THE DO-RIGHT: A Mystery 

Lisa Sandlin 

Trade Paper $16.95 / 978-1-941026-19-9 

E-Book $16.95 / 978-1-941026-24-3 

Lisa Sandlin’s novel The Do-Right won the prestigious 2016 Hammett Prize from the International Association of Crime Writers (North America). The Hammett honors literary excellence in the field of crime-writing. This great news comes on the heels of her Shamus Award win for Best Debut Novel given by the Private Eye Writers of America. Plus STARRED Reviews in Kirkus and Publishers Weekly, and a Kirkus BEST BOOK, 2015!

“The Do-Right”—that’s old Southern talk for prison. Delpha Wade doesn’t want to go back there. Fourteen years is enough.

 “Lisa Sandlin blends pathos, humor, and poetic prose in a strong debut.” —KIRKUS STARRED REVIEW

“Sandlin’s clipped prose style is pleasingly eccentric, and can become downright Chandleresque.” —PW STARRED REVIEW

Lisa Sandlin holding the Hammett Award, "The Thin Man" designed by sculptor Peter Bolger. Joining Lisa in the celebration is novelist Vicki Hendricks.

Meet Delpha Wade

1973. That’s fourteen years of prison time after Delpha Wade killed a man who was raping her. She wanted to kill the other one too, but he got away. So it’s hard to find a decent job. But Delpha’s persistence pays off. She lands a secretarial job with Tom Phelan, a neophyte private eye. Delpha is smart and prison-wise to human nature. Phelan is a Vietnam vet and an ex-roughneck who lost a finger working the oil rigs out in the Gulf. Together Phelan and Delpha stumble into the dark side of Beaumont, a small blue-collar Cajun city dominated by Big Oil. A mysterious client plots mayhem against company men whose new oilfield product is set to rock the industry. Teenage boys are disappearing and Phelan, following his hunches, uncovers a menagerie of exotic animals and 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 the wonders of friendship, compassion, and human sexuality.