The Do-Right

Delpha Wade and Tom Phelan Mystery Series #1

by Lisa Sandlin

Librarian's Note: This is an alternate-cover edition for ISBN 9781941026199

Winner of the 2015 Dashiell Hammett Prize and 2016 Shamus Award

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.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Detective, College

306 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 2015

About the author

Lisa Sandlin was born in the Gulf Coast oil town of Beaumont, Texas, and lived there before and after a transfer sent her family to Naples, Italy, for three years. She graduated from Rice University in Houston and then lived many years in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Once she had earned an M.F.A. in Writing at Vermont College, Sandlin packed a small car and headed for Nebraska in January. She taught at Wayne State College 1997-2009, with semester leaves to teach at The University of Texas and Kadir Has University in Istanbul, Turkey, and at University of Nebraska Omaha 2009-2018. Her books are "The Famous Thing About Death" (Cinco Puntos Press, 1991); "Message to the Nurse of Dreams" (Cinco Puntos Press, 1997), winner of the Violet Crown Award from the Austin Writers League and the Jesse H. Jones Award from the Texas Institute of Letters; "In the River Province" (Southern Methodist University Press, 2004), a finalist for the Jones award; "You Who Make the Sky Bend," (Pinyon Publishing), a collaboration with New Mexican retablo artist Catherine Ferguson, NM Book Award. Lately she has written two noir mysteries from Cinco Puntos Press: "The Do-Right" (2015), winner of the Shamus Award and the Hammett Prize, and "The Bird Boys" (2019). She is a professor emeritus of the Writer's Workshop at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Reviews

[L.A. Starks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! All should read this perfect literary mystery, set in Beaumont in the 1970s. Sandlin has won numerous awards for her short stories; The Do-Right is her debut novel. The Do-Right was recommended by professional book reviewer Shawna Seed as an unrecognized stand-out among the numerous titles she's read in the last year.

If Harper Lee had continued writing, this is the kind of poetic thriller she would have penned. Gem after gem of description await the reader. Sandlin's feel for the people and themes of industrial southeast Texas/West Louisiana is exactly right.

Main character Delpha Wade is admirable and easy to identify with. I hope Sandlin writes more books featuring Delpha.

[Miss Luckywest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beaumont Noir, 1973. How can you go wrong? And Lisa Sandlin doesn't. There's not a false note in this "debut" novel by a wonderful and seasoned writer of short fiction and nonfiction. The East Texas dialogue is pitch perfect, the hapless P.I. formula is fresh, Phelan and Delpha are characters you will be happy to have met. The setting and the 1970s time-frame are meticulously rendered, and while the mysteries here propel you forward (large and small, there are a few and they are deftly intertwined) the profound sense of these characters' lives will keep you even more spellbound. This is one of those books where I stopped reading and laid it against my chest and felt the sheer wonder of the author to convey a time, a place and a feeling. Hats off to Lisa Sandlin! I hear a rumor there is another Delpha and Phelan story in the works, and I can't wait until it's out in the world.

[Diamond Cowboy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book. I shall give a full review on a later date.

[Susanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strong characters and spare, terse dialogue mark this terrific tale about Delpha Wade, newly released from prison ("The Do-Right") after killing a man who raped her, as she lands a job as secretary to a novice private investigator back in 1970's Beaumont, Texas. Delpha is a terrific character -- and Tom Phelan, the would-be P.I., might well become one if Sandlin writes any more books about the duo! The details of life in a small Texas town at the edge of Louisiana and the complex and hugely satisfying plot seemed vivid and true. I had to pay attention to follow the cast of characters in the mix of cases the two take on, but the ending was worth a fist-pump or two. Those who enjoyed the "Robert Galbraith" (J.K. Rowling) series about P.I. Cormoran Strike and his secretary Robin will find some similarities here -- but this American variant is darker, more direct, and more compelling by a mile. I want to spend more time with Delpha Wade!

[Jacqie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author can write, there's no doubt about that. I did have doubts, however, about the subject matter going in. I'm not a big fan of books about ex-prisoners because they tend to go for the sensationalism. In this book, the word "prurient" turns out to be a big deal, and I suppose it's the word I'd use for what I don't like about books about prison- but with fascination with the violence and brutality that can take place there as well as the sexual. Delpha Wade turns out to be a sensitively written character, though, one who has survived prison by being able to detach from most things in order to get through the humiliations and danger that were her life there. She ends up as the secretary for the brand-new PI Phelan as a favor to Phelan's buddy who is Delpha's parole officer.

Is this book a mystery? Sort of. There's an episodic nature to many of the cases that Phelan takes on and solves within this book- maybe the author's background as a short story writer can be seen there. But the individual cases do end up getting pieced together- Beaumont is a really small town, I guess, and everything ties into everything.

The author can nail a character in very few words. That was probably the strongest part of the book. The plot was probably the weakest. It felt a bit like the author really wanted to focus on her characters, particularly Delpha's re-integration into the free world, but knew there had to be some plot there somewhere. Some of the book felt a bit over the top, and some of it made me uncomfortable. It was too well written to quite be melodrama, but some of it did feel larger-than-life, which was sort of a contradiction to the nuanced and realistic characters that the author mostly focused on. I'm not sure if the author should stay with the PI team trope and go further with this or not.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was tough to get into and not at all what I expected. I stuck with it only for the mere fact that I wanted to see if it would impress me in the end. It was pretty anti-climactic overall with a two star ending. I'm shocked at the high reviews for this book thus far. Not sure why I feel drastically different.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1973, just out after 14 years in prison for killing a man who was brutally cutting and raping her, Delpha is looking for a job in Beaumont Texas. The small southern oil town has no use for Delpha until her parole officer twists Tom Phelan's arm and makes him hire her as an office manager.
A Vietnam Vet, Tom worked as a roughneck until the unforgiving machinery severed an index finger. Unwilling to offer another body part to the cause he has hung out a shingle as a private eye.
He doesn't know it yet but choosing Delpha over the incompetent giggling bunnies that have applied for the office job is the best thing he could have done for his fledgling business.
In no time at all the duo, individually and in the business find themselves in a convoluted intrigue involving chemistry, murder, revenge, business mergers, aging rapists, college kids on break, infidelity, grieving widows, arrogant cops and unbelievable coincidences.
Addressing grand themes that we all struggle with but in intense and raw situations that rivet our attention the Do-Right is a compelling mystery that satisfies even as it makes us think. It is one of those books that the mind will return to again and again.

[Charles Dee Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This debut crime novel by an award-winning short story writer disappointed me. Beaumont, Texas, in 1974 is a great setting that Sandlin makes minimal use of. Her principal characters are engaging. Delpha Wade has spent 14 of her 32 years serving a manslaughter charge. She stabbed to death the younger member of the father and son team who raped her. ("The Do-Right is Southern slang for prison.) Her parole officer gets her an interview with Tom Phelan, a novice private investigator who has entered the business to get himself off the oil rigs. They will make a good team, but the jobs they take on are complex without being very interesting. And much will hinge on a coincidence worthy of Dickens.

The novel is clearly testing the waters for a potential series. The characters are up to it, and Sandlin probably has the skills to pull it off. Tighter plotting and more atmosphere are called for.

[Gram · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book to treasure. The writing is beautiful and the characters - especially the main ones - are brought vividly to life. Private eye Tom Phelan and his enigmatic secretary, Delpha Wade -who spent 14 years in prison for killing a man who was raping her - are wonderful creations and I can only hope that we hear more about them from author Lisa Sandlin. Tom Phelan is anything but a hard-boiled private eye as he struggles for work and to sort out the lies from the truth in a handful of cases brought before his brand new detective agency. Lisa Sandlin gives a marvellous insight into a small Texas city in the early 1970's with the Nixon/Watergate hearings bubbling away in the background. A story to be read slowly and savoured and one that I'm sure will remain with me for a long, long time. Highly recommended.

[Gwyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a solid debut work, but I kept waiting for the mystery to start. It's more like China Town, the movie, than a conventional mystery. I really liked the character of Delpha, and the scenes with her are where the author really shines. Watching Delpha quietly but steadfastly come back to life after her time in prison is a treat.

A side note: if you grew up in Beaumont, Texas during the 1970s, the familiarity of the places will blow you away. The author's loving descriptions of actual landmarks like the old Terryll library are perfect and likely to trigger nostalgia for a place I mostly don't miss.

[Candy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best part was the cover and the blurb about the photographer and how the cover photo relates to the story. I loved that, and the picture.
I don't know what possessed me to read this. Somehow I think I was thinking it was a "happily ever after" story, but it wasn't. However, I did read all the way to the end.

[Patty · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF’d at 42%. Based on all the reviews I’m guessing this was just not my cup of tea. There were really interesting parts that had suspense and excitement but the problem was they were infrequent and the broader narrative I found to be slow, and at times boring. I just couldn’t get into it and since my TBR pile is HUGE, I gave up and moved on.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are just so good. The plot feels episodic until everything comes together in the end, but it’s definitely secondary to the wonderful writing, which is subtle, evocative, funny, etc etc etc.

[Melliane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mon avis en Français

My English review

Je ne connaissais pas du tout le roman ni l’auteure, mais j’ai tout de suite été intriguée par le résumé quand je l’ai découvert et je dois bien dire que j’ai passé un très bon moment !

Delpha vient de passer 14 ans en prison et sort tout juste. Ce n’est pas facile, mais en plus personne ne semble vouloir employer une ex-tolarde. Aussi quand un coup de pouce l’aide à trouver un poste d’assistante pour un détective privé, elle est soulagée. Ce travail va lui permettre de se poser enfin et de pouvoir gagner un peu d’argent pour réaliser ses rêves (même si elle ne sait pas encore ce qu’elle veut exactement).

Elle va se retrouver embarquée dans les missions de son patron, voire même se retrouvera parfois au centre de certaines et j’ai trouvé que l’auteure était parvenue à bien tout relier avec aisance. J’ai été assez impressionnée !

Je suis désormais impatiente de découvrir la suite pour voir comment nos deux héros vont s’en sortir !

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fiction
Lisa Sandlin
The Do-Right
Cinco Puntos Press
Paperback, 978-1-941026-19-9 (also available as ebook), 306 pgs., $16.95
October 13, 2015


The Do-Right (an old Southern term for prison) is Lisa Sandlin’s first mystery novel. Set in Beaumont, Texas, in 1973, it joins the growing subgenre of Gulf Coast Noir. Delpha Wade, returning to Beaumont after fourteen years in the women’s prison at Gatesville for killing one of the men who raped her on a dance-hall floor, needs a job as a condition of parole. Tom Phelan is a Vietnam veteran opening his practice as a private investigator. Wade has a business course certificate from Gatesville. Phelan needs a secretary and takes a chance on Wade. Together they ferret out unfaithful husbands, missing persons, industrial espionage, and a serial killer. The Do-Right is a satisfying and entertaining contribution to classic noir.

The quick-witted, determined Delpha Wade is a sympathetic character who uses improve skills and hard-won knowledge of human nature (“You can learn to lose curiosity”) gleaned on the inside to adjust to life on the outside. It is a pleasure to watch her slowly unfurling, like a time-lapse of a flower opening to the sun. “Delpha had promised herself patience. Get used to all the clear air around her, the streets stretching out, doors that open open open. Couldn’t come all at once. Come slow. She’d have to get used to wearing sky over her head.” Tom Phelan is a likeable guy learning to be a private investigator who turns out to be like a terrier with a bone when two and two don’t make four. “This case was dead as a crab in crude, but it wouldn’t stop skittering sideways.”

The historical detail brings 1973 alive. The Watergate hearings are on TV, Hank Aaron is chasing the Babe’s home-run record, eight-track tapes and men sporting Burt Reynolds sideburns abound. You can feel Beaumont as well with its Cajun culture, sulfur smell of petrochemicals, and subtropical humidity.

Sandlin writes in the noir tradition (“Phelan stepped over the threshold into a curtain of bourbon fume and iron and silence”), colloquially, with simple but precise language, in fragments and dropped conjunctions. “Phelan asked for Georgia and found her, said he wanted to talk.” You can hear Bogie, can’t you? Wade, exasperated with Phelan: “You need to know something I learned from my past, ask me straight out. I’ll tell you. Just don’t act like my slip is showing.”

The Do-Right is funny, too. “Putting the paper away, he [Phelan] wondered how she felt about her boy Nixon now that he’d acquired his own special prosecutor. Phelan had had one of those in third grade, until he cracked the fifth-grader’s head with a Davy Crockett lunch box. Maybe Nixon’d try that.” And cases that require such sentences as, “Why would your brother and sister want your artificial leg?”

As the narrative moves between Wade and Phelan, Sandlin creates a trail of expertly-dropped clues. As she begins braiding storylines (“It’s just … there’s kinda a collision of circumstances happening here.”) into a surprising, elegant conclusion, history attempts to repeat itself and Beaumont proves to be smaller than it looks. You could call it Beaumont Confidential.

Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am building a fence. It consumes most of my attention. So I am reading genre books, scifi and mystery, nothing complicated or literary, something that pulls me along with little effort from me.

This book won a Shamus Award. I have read a few noir PI novels. This book reminds me of those. I really like the author's voice. The plot takes time to boil up, giving you characters along the way. The result is like an enjoyable yarn that you do not mind that it is not getting to the point immediately or that relevant actions are happening. Fun, fun, fun!

[Berengaria]

DNF. Splotchy start that didn't give a sense of place or character, and Texas in 1973 is a setting with plenty of give. Semi-random events that don't go anywhere and lack cohesion. Plot? After reading 100 pages, I'm still not sure there is one. Noticeable lack of character development —when there really could be some — and an oddly pell-mell writing style.
Disappointing, as the setting and the character of ex-convict-turned-PI Delpha interested me and I adore the 70s look of the cover. Stopped at page 100. No idea why this won some awards. No rating because DNF; read German edition. 😕

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, fast-moving mystery novel with enough literary fiber to float above the fluff. A delightful exploration of a very specific time and place (Beaumont, Texas, in August 1973) through the experiences of two characters beginning their "second acts" in life. One, Tom Phelan, is transitioning from roughneck to private dick; the other, Delpha Wade, emerging from a fourteen year piece in the penitentiary for murdering the man who raped her.

[Bayneeta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summer1973 Beaumont, Texas. Hot and sticky. Watergate hearings on TV. New PI in town with a new ex-con secretary. Look forward to reading more from Lisa Sandlin.

7/1/19: reread in eager anticipation of the sequel, The Bird Boys, due out this summer.

[Robert Intriago · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry, not my type of book. It wandered all over the place and the pieces did not connect at all for me. The writing was good.

[Jim Thomsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Funny. Used to think it was the ships, but all along it had been the river that drew him. It stretched him until his blood streamed with it. The river remained itself, its wholeness a power beyond any of the puny daily forces in Tom Phelan's little life. He could drive down here and study it, gray in the days, black at night, white gleams of moon, port light carried on the rippling skin of its wide back. After a while he wouldn't bother with understanding anything."

Lisa Sandlin's THE DO-RIGHT is a pocket miracle, a near-perfect poetic sleeper from the small-press ranks that carries itself along on the drowsily confident cat's feet of a voice steeped in time and place and the timeless authority of a native daughter. The time is 1973, the place is Beaumont, Texas, and Delpha Wade and Tom Phelan are native sons and daughters who are trying to reboot their lives after long times away — Delpha for a fourteen-year prison stretch for killing one of her two rapists; and Tom, on the oil rig that took one of his fingers, and a stretch in Vietnam that may or may not have taken more of that. And they're trying to do it against institutional forces that won't willingly allow them to be anything other than what each used to be. Small wonder that Hank Aaron's pursuit of Babe Ruth's home-run record — a black man trying to take something he's earned away from a beloved white man — plays out like a radio-fed Greek chorus as Delpha and Tom pursue their personal and professional ends, or maybe just their meanwhiles.

I could describe the plot, but, as with all great noir and private-eye novels, the pleasures of THE DO-RIGHT lie elsewhere. Primarily in its prose, which is light enough on its lightly amused feet to remind one of the Elmore Leonard of the time mixed with something else ineffably Southern but seasoned with time spent elsewhere: Harry Crews, Barry Hannah, Flannery O'Connor, something like that, or maybe just Lisa Sandlin. I love her slouchy, hipshot way with a simile:

"Long-beaked pelicans were strung out across the water, floating with decorum like cats settled with their paws beneath them."

"Time you realized gratitude comes to a natural end, like a sack of donuts."

"She cut the engine and as the boat eased on a ways of its own silent accord, the insect-singing—the bugs, the frogs, the locusts, the whole chittering, clicking, sawing, whirring choir—descended over her like a lofted sheet on its airy way back down."

Like a secret lover, the DO-RIGHT is something, like a cult musician's first album,that you want to shout from the mountaintops and keep to yourself at the same time. It is that rare thing: a perfect snapshot of a time, an unfaded packet of Polaroids; a debut novel that never falls victim to most debut-novel pitfalls like overexposition or underplotting; continued proof that many women write men better than men do (let alone men writing women); and a genre novel whose deepest pleasures are found in repeated readings.

If you've ever wondered what a female Elmore Leonard would sound like, the DO-RIGHT steps up and says how-do and smiles and sidles around to your blind side and spirits you off to the thickets for all sorts of fun you can't quite anticipate or articulate.

[John Addiego · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an unusual novel that straddles literary and genre fiction by relying on evocative language and descriptions. Sandlin has created two very likable protagonists working together in what could have been a more cozy presentation but is decidedly not: this is a gritty, violent, sexual world. There's so much to admire in this writer's style, and I look forward to reading the next in her series.

[Sheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well if you start with this Phelan/Wade series entry don’t miss the second in the series. Sandlin got a slow start but is finding her footing in the second thriller in the series which I listened to first. It is worth your time. Enjoy both! I did but the second more than the first. Delpha is a really interesting character and Phelan is not far behind.

[Frank Hoppe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this and its followup very much. The characters are well developed, the dialogue well written.

I don’t often read mysteries except to unwind between more demanding books. The plots, however well done, just don’t stay in my memory.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Do-Right takes place in the city of my birth (Beaumont Texas) in 1973. I was eight at the time and not wandering about unsupervised, so I cannot attest to the verisimilitude of every historical detail. What I can tell you is that this is a fine novel, written by a talented author.

In addition to the simple joy of playing "that takes me back" while reading about local landmarks (The Jefferson, J & J Steakhouse etc.) I found myself really enjoying the story and the characters. Lisa Sandlin's novel works on a variety of levels. You can read it for the noir/mystery aspect and it is certainly effective there but the story of Delpha Wade taking her life back after a long stretch in the "do-right" aka the hoosegow is also fascinating.

The title of this book is a clever pun, but the author is a clever woman. I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa Sandlin at a local book signing. I would have purchased The Do-Right anyway because of where the action takes place, but I found myself to be in pleasant company-Sandlin is sharp, funny, and very erudite. This may be the first book I was motivated to purchase based in part on the delightful personality of its' author. But that still works for me because this book was worth spending my hard earned dollars on. Listen up, Constant Reader: The Do-Right is worth spending your hard earned dollars on too. You can't have my copy (it's autographed) so I urge you to go get your own.

[Kelly Well Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lisa Sandlin has hit a homerun with her debut, The Do-Right, a full-length novel based on her short-story, “Phelan’s First Case.” Tom Phelan is a brand new PI working in a Texas port city during the Watergate era of the 1970’s who hires a recently released female parolee named Delpha Wade to work as his assistant. Tom is a Vietnam veteran who a hangs out his shingle as a private detective after losing a finger in an oil rig accident. He does a favor for a probation officer friend by hiring Delpha, recently released from a women’s correctional facility after serving fourteen years for killing one of the two men who raped her. Both Tom and Delpha are narrators of this tale in which a variety of unusual cases (and characters) cross their doorstep, including a betrayed wife (or is she?), a missing prosthetic leg, an inheritance mystery, and an ultimately satisfying resolution to Delpha’s tragic history. Sandlin does a great job of gradually weaving the history of her protagonists’ lives throughout the story and how those histories affect their cases. The author, a Beaumont, Texas native, has an ear for southern dialogue, especially in the uneducated Delpha – but Delpha’s lack of education is not indicative of her intelligence or her street smarts, the latter honed by her years in prison. Here’s hoping we’ll see more of Tom, Delpha and new cases for Phelan Investigations! (Warning: some fairly graphic intimacy is described in parts of the novel).

[Kristine Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

FABULOUS. Lisa Sandlin's writing style is unique and has a cadence to it that perfectly fits the setting, the people, and the noir vibe of the book. The grammarian in me at first fought the unconventional writing (where the heck are the conjunctions?!), but it didn't take long for the authentic voices of the characters to surface and grip me. It's unlike anything I've read before -- and that's a very good thing in this instance.

Sandlin's main character Delpha Wade is complex and fascinating, and readers are right with her through all she experiences and feels, though somehow Delpha also manages to keep us at arm's length. Despite her life seemingly an open book, there is a mysterious part to Delpha, too, and she keeps it neatly tucked away. The weight of it is palpable, and it is not only the readers who feel it but Delpha's boss, Tom Phelan, who is an intriguing character himself. Sandlin knows how to write people at their best and worst and every point in between.

I anxiously awake the next book, The Bird Boys, coming in August 2019.

[David Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

My local library had book 2 of the series and I prefer to start with the first book of the series so I ordered it on Interlibrary Loan.
I was disappointed in this story. The main characters were written as 'Everyman' characters and I didn't get into them or the storyline. I felt that the author was doing too much to reinforce the idea that this was taking place in the 1970's. I feel that the characters and story could have been set in any era without much writing effort. I was able to sop reading anywhere in this story and come back to it several days later with no qualms or reading withdrawal anxiety.
I did finish this book and have read book 2.

[Laurie P · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's 1973 and Delpha Wade is fresh out of prison after a 14-year stint for murdering her rapist. She arrives at the doorstep of PI Tim Phelan, who originally has no intention of hiring her as his assistant, but Delpha simply starts working, quickly making herself indispensable. Then their cases start to overlap, one involving Big Oil, another a serial killer.

The main characters in this book are fully fleshed out, and I found myself rooting for Delpha from the very first page. Through her eyes, I could taste freedom, and the value of the simple things in life.

[Randi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Do-Right is a surprising story about a young woman dealing with her second chance. The story is a puzzle with many intersecting pieces, yet at the same time quietly poetic. I hope Lisa Sandlin writes more stories with Delpha and Tom. If she does, I will definitely read them.