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Lisa Howorth

Biography

Lisa Howorth

Lisa Howorth was born in Washington, D.C., where her family has lived for four generations. She is a former librarian and the author of the novel FLYING SHOES. She has written on art, travel, dogs and music for the Oxford American and Garden & Gun, among other publications. Howorth lives in Oxford, Mississippi, where she and her husband, Richard, founded Square Books in 1979.

Lisa Howorth

Books by Lisa Howorth

by Lisa Howorth - Fiction, Historical Fiction

It’s the summer of 1959 in the seemingly tranquil suburbs of Washington, D.C. But our young narrator, John, and his best friends, Ivan and Max, know the truth: every door on their street could be hiding an escaped Nazi or a spy with secrets about the A-bomb. The entire city is being plagued by an inexplicable spider infestation --- surely evidence of “insect warfare” by the Russians! So when a rare vinegaroon --- a whip scorpion --- is discovered on Capitol Hill and sequestered for study at the Smithsonian, the boys, along with their tomboy accomplice, Beatriz, hatch a risky midnight plan to steal the deadly creature for their own devious purposes. Yet when the friends discover some very real instances of anti-Semitism and prejudice in the neighborhood, it’s the shocking and tragic events stemming from a well-intentioned community-building potluck party that change their lives forever.

by Lisa Howorth - Fiction

Mary Byrd Thornton could understand how a reporter couldn’t resist the story: a nine-year-old boy sexually molested and killed on Mother's Day, 1966. A suspect to whom nothing would stick. A neighborhood riddled with secrets. No one, especially the bungling or complicit authorities, had been able to solve the crime. Now, 30 years later, the reporter’s call will reel a reluctant Mary Byrd from Mississippi back to Virginia where she must confront her family --- and, once again, the murder’s irremovable stain of tragedy.