Lise McClendon
Lise McClendon writes fiction from her home in Montana. She is the author of seven novels and numerous short stories and articles.Books By Lise McClendon writing as Rory Tate:
Jump Cut
Seattle reporter Mimi Raynard is having a bad week. Her ex-husband is now her boss at the TV station and wants her head on a platter. When three prostitutes die of a suspicious heroin overdose Mimi gets the story but in her nervous enthusiasm manages to bungle it. The narcotics detective on the case tries to help but both are out-foxed by the buxom intern. What’s a girl to do?
Desperate and out of ideas Mimi takes a friend’s advice and dresses up as a Russian Mafiya Madam for a resume tape she has no intention of sending out. But the lark turns serious when the intern steals the tape. At the Seattle Police Department the narcotics detective Shad Mulgrew has his own career crisis. He is framed for stealing drugs from evidence. Is someone in the department killing prostitutes?
Working together to save their reputations, Mimi and Shad look for the truth, from the fishing docks of Puget Sound to the backwoods of the tiny Republic of Moldova. They end up salvaging a lot more than their careers. In a wild finish they save the soul of Seattle, and find themselves.
Visit www.rorytate.com for more information
Books By Lise McClendon:
Blackbird Fly
Merle Bennett, a legal aid lawyer in New York, is shocked by the sudden death of her husband. She takes her teenage son to France when she escapes her grief. Her husband’s ancestral home, crumbling and infested with secrets, should be a project full of solace and sunshine. But soon any calm she feels is overshadowed by the past. A crumbling house, a deranged squatter somehow connected to her husband, unfriendly villagers, a ghastly surprise in the garden house — it makes a girl almost wish for the sleepy suburbs. But Merle can’t go home until all is resolved, one way or another.
In her first suspense novel, Lise McClendon reveals her love of both the French countryside and the intimacies and drama of family. Her style has been described as “lyrical and often humorous” and her mysteries as “richly detailed,… quite simply gets to your heart.” As an Amazon reader wrote: “There are dead bodies, lots of suspense and mystery, great characters, a bit of romance, but mostly it’s just a great story! This is one of the best books I’ve read this year. You won’t disappointed.”
“A few writers are gifted with a feel for place that transforms locale from mere background into a vital element. To their number add Lise McClendon.”
– San Diego Union Tribune
The ALIX THORSSEN Mysteries
The Bluejay Shaman
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Traveling the back roads of Montana, not-quite-fearless art gallery owner Alix Thorssen is far from her home in Jackson Hole. Trying to clear her sister’s husband of murder, she finds herself up to her Ray-bans in shaman’s secrets, muysterious deaths, zealots, and madmen, not to mention — ah yes — passion among the pine needles.
Whoever killed Shiloh Merkin hated her. But did Wade Fraser, University of Montana professor, do the deed? Alix follows a trail of moonlit rituals and legendary artifacts as another murder leads her to a chilling confrontation with a killer.
“In this first novel in the series, Lise McClendon weaves a gripping tale of suspense, blending Indian lore, the timeless clash of western values, and the magnificent landscape of the Rockies.
“Delightful; compellingly twisted. Reminiscent of Tony Hillerman at his best.”
– James Crumley, author of The Last Good Kiss
“A sleuth with intelligence, courage, and real heart.”
– Earlene Fowler
“The magic in a Lise McClendon mystery lies in the character of the heroine, an outwardly stoic and reserved Norwegian-American, who has a big heart.”
– Midwest Review
Painted Truth
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Alix Thorssen’s partnership with sexy Paolo Segundo is at a crossroads. When another gallery on the town square burns, revealing the body of a famous artist, she is drawn into the investigation as an appraiser of the lost paintings. Ray Tantro was a has-been at 30 but was on the verge of a comeback. Why would he commit suicide? Why are the police so quick to dismiss foul play? The investigation makes her confront her own contradictions as an art lover, turning everything she knows upside down. She must examine her ethics and even her way of life to find the truth, and justice. But not without a very high price.
“An extremely satisfying mystery whose intricate plot kept me guessing. It’s a rare book that can keep me riveted to its pages and have me reaching for tissues at the end. This one did. I give it my highest recommendation.”
– Mystery News
“Writing in a lyrical, often humorous style, McClendon brings the surrounding Wyoming territories to life.”
– Armchair Detective
“An unusually complex art swindle that will leave you gasping with admiration for the killer’s imagination and industry. McClendon knits detective work together with domestic betrayals in a satisfyingly intricate tangle.”
– Kirkus Reviews
Nordic Nights
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Set in wintry Jackson Hole, Wyo., this crisp, straightforward mystery plunges gallery owner Alix Thorssen into the local Nordic Nights festival, which features ice carving, a parade, ski races and a startling murder. Famous Norwegian painter Glasius Dokken, who had come to town for his show at Alix’s gallery, is found stabbed with an ice pick in the hotel room of an itinerant and provocative fortune-teller.
Arrested for the killing is Alix’s glumly stoic stepfather (his fingerprints were all over the crime scene), who reveres his Scandinavian heritage and has painstakingly crafted a replica of a Viking ship to be displayed in the parade. Alix, persistent and unflappable, begins to investigate, but accidents plague her and her family: the Viking ship nearly crushes her; her mother barely escapes a hit-and-run; and Bjarne, a seductive ski-racer who has beguiled Alix, is also implicated in the murder.
“McClendon works a good deal of Nordic folklore into her story. The fortune-teller is a specialist in runes, and her silver-and-wood tools quickly become a central point in the case: Are the runes museum quality? Have they been stolen? The third entry in the McClendon’s series (after The Bluejay Shaman) conjures up the icy beauty of Jackson Hole. Her agreeably feisty heroine and a hair-raising finale will keep readers entertained throughout the night, Nordic or otherwise.”
– Publisher’s Weekly
Blue Wolf
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This is the fourth novel in an engaging series featuring artist, gallery owner, and sometime sleuth Alix Thorssen, a resident of touristy Jackson Hole, Wyoming. October is a slow month for tourism in Jackson Hole, but there is enough drama among the locals to keep them busy. In the midst of an uproar over the shooting of an endangered wolf, a friend asks Alix to look into an older crime–the murder of a local boy. The case has been swept under the rug for 25 years, but it turns out to be far from closed, as Alix discovers ties to prominent citizens and current scandals in her search through long-forgotten documents and memories.
Wyoming flora and fauna are lovingly described alongside sharp dialogue and good pacing in this readable, down-to-earth mystery, which is refreshingly free of a histrionic heroine-in-danger finale.
“Recommend to fans of the outdoorsy and witty Nevada Barr and Dana Stabenow novels.”
– Booklist.
“This is a tension-filled novel which shows McClendon’s keen sense of people and their emotions and their conflicts. And always, watching from the mountains, as Alix and the others caught up in this surprising and twisting tale, is the avatar and the catalyst, the blue wolf. This is a powerful, moving novel.”
– Amazon review.
The DORIE LENNOX Mysteries
One O’Clock Jump
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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 she must conquer her fears and save a woman on a bridge high above the muddy Missouri. 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.
With vivid 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 jazz-age Kansas City. The landscape of America and the homefront of World War II are evoked in this thoughtful mystery that lingers for the force of characters and keen sharpness of a slice of history, seen through the perceptive, compassionate eyes of Dorie Lennox.
“A time capsule, transporting a tale of murder, greed, and intrigue from vintage Kansas City.”
– Sue Grafton
“Wonderful: a richly detailed story that quite simply gets to your heart.”
– Michael Connelly
Sweet and Lowdown
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“In this worthy sequel to One O’Clock Jump, 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. 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.)
McClendon handles all the threads, using a taut, staccato style that perfectly complements her edgy, skittish heroine. The author masterfully evokes the period. This is a book to be savored; read it too fast and you might miss something.”
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