Jazzed

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 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.
"Dearman's Jazz Age melodrama…tweaks the real-life story of child-killers Leopold and Loeb into a love story of two women set in a richly atmospheric panorama of New York in the Roaring '20s, awhirl in high society, hothouse dorms, and uptown gin mills. It's also a crackerjack procedural…{and} a wildly entertaining and energetic period thriller."
"Rife with authentic period detail and sizzling with complex and obsessive psychological realism, Jazzed will rivet you right through to its haunting final pages."
"The eroticism of Highsmith and the intensity of Ellroy in an ingenious gender-swapping take on the Leopold & Loeb case…Dearman creates an unforgettable duo brimming with murderous passion and lusting for revenge on the society which won't accept them."