JAZZED, A Gender-Swapped Leopold & Loeb Novel Drops Today + Editing Special
Hello Friends,
I’m thrilled to announce the publication of my new novel, JAZZED out today from Vine Leaves Press
True crime + Historical Fiction = JAZZED!
I would be so honored if you pick up a copy. It’s available online and in bookstores today. If you are so inclined to leave a review online, ask your local bookstore to carry it, or share on social media or through old fashioned word of mouth that would be wonderful. This Bonnie and Clyde tale of two young, queer rebels is more relevant now than ever and means more to me than anything I have ever written. We are living in a world where our rights are systemically being taken away in a chilling daily fashion. The story of JAZZED takes place a century ago but eerily reflects our present crises. Read my interview with British crime fiction scholar Steven Powell to learn more. I hope JAZZED inspires you politically and thrills you as a literary beach read! (Yes, I just said that!)
Read on for more info and contact me about anything Jazzed-related. I’ll be reading at Womencrafts in Provincetown this Sunday, July 10th at 5:30 pm. Check out my website for additional events. I will be doing some events with my book buddy, John McCaffrey, whose fab book of stories Automatically Hip drops today.
Also, fellow writers, I am running an EDITING SPECIAL this summer, so if you need any help getting your work finished and out there in the world, please contact me at jilldearman@gmail.com. If you are doing anything online right now besides ordering my book – lol – I know you are slacking off!
–“A wildly entertaining and energetic period thriller.” — Starred Kirkus Review
Academic geniuses, Wilhelmina “Will” Reinhardt and Dorothy “Dolly” Raab, become roommates at Barnard in the early 1920s, a time when college for women was a rarity. Socially awkward Will, grieving her mother’s death, is fascinated by Dolly, a beautiful, charming rebel with an insatiable taste for adrenaline. Both musicians, they come alive at Harlem jazz clubs and Prohibition-era speakeasies. Dazzled by the world they are discovering together, their romance ignites. But while Will is obsessed with Dolly, Dolly is obsessed with crime. The power dynamics keep shifting as Will agrees to commit petty crimes with Dolly in exchange for sexual favors. When the University and their rich families unite to split them up, passions escalate. To strike back at those who deny them the right to be together, they plot another crime: murder. A gender-swapped take on the infamous “Leopold and Loeb” case, JAZZED is part historical fiction, part true crime. Juxtaposing the thrilling scientific breakthroughs in quantum physics and artistic explosion of the Harlem Renaissance with the pseudoscience of eugenics and anti-immigration fervor that also defined the era, the novel mirrors today’s polarized world and moves with the fast-paced rhythm of jazz itself.
–“The eroticism of Highsmith and the intensity of Ellroy in an ingenious gender-swapped take on the Leopold & Loeb case.” –Steven Powell, author of Love Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James Ellroy
–“What begins as a passionate flirtation turns into a dangerous obsession…” –Carley Moore author of The Not Wives and Panpocalypse
–“Like some brilliant amalgamation of Patricia Highsmith’s best work, Mary McCarthy’s The Group, and the Jazz Age tabloid-crime musical Chicago, JAZZED is a frenetic, scary, erotic, funny and darkly moving thrill ride.” –Tim Murphy, author of Christadora and Correspondents.
The author’s story behind JAZZED:
Author Bio:
Jill Dearman is the author of BANG THE KEYS, a book for writers (Penguin 2009). Her historical crime novel THE GREAT BRAVURA (She Writes Press 2015) was featured on NPR, and in The Brooklyn Rail. She is the author of FEMINISM: THE MARCH TOWARDS EQUAL RIGHTS FOR WOMEN (Nomad Press 2019), a history of feminism for teens. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the New School, and works as a Part-time Professor of Writing in New York University’s Liberal Studies Program. Jill runs a private editing/writing coach business and regularly teaches writing workshops at The Writers Room in New York City. She is honored to serve on the Editorial Board of The Dialogic Pedagogy Journal: An International Online Journal. Jill is represented by Susan Golomb of Writers House Literary Agency. For more: www.jilldearman.com.