Back in 1959, 19-year-old Delpha Wade was assaulted by a father-and-son pair of lowlifes. She killed the son as he raped her and wounded the father before he got away. Convicted by an all-male jury, she did fourteen years in the do-right (Southern slang for prison). Now she’s out, but nobody’s rushing to hire a parolee. 

 

Persistence and smarts land her a secretarial job with Tom Phelan, a Vietnam Vet and ex-roughneck turned private eye. Tough and intelligent, he’s read plenty of detective novels but otherwise doesn’t really know what he’s doing. He’s thrilled to meet Delpha, whose knowledge of crime and criminals far outstrips his own.

 

Together these two pry into the dark corners of Beaumont, where the Piney Woods of East Texas meet Cajun Louisiana, a bustling town dominated by Big Oil.  A mysterious client plots mayhem against a small petrochemical company – why?  And Delpha finds herself looking into the eyes of the rapist who got away. 

 

The arrival of summer in 1973 brought mixed tidings for America. The Vietnam War was over, Hank Aaron chased Babe Ruth's record, and the Watergate hearings on TV revealed the moral squalor of Richard Nixon and his minions. It was a time of freedom, confusion and reckoning. Down in the East Texas port city of Beaumont, oil flowed and money changed hands as per usual. This is the setting for The Do-Right.