Tag Archives: 1940s crime

#BookReview ‘Secrets Typed in Blood’ by Stephen Spotswood @playwrightSteve #crime

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When a string of real-life murders are identical to a crime author’s latest stories, there’s only one detective team the writer can turn to. In Secrets Typed in Blood by Stephen Spotswood, Holly Quick asks the crack New York detectives Lilian Pentecost and Willowjean Parker for help. Stephen SpotswoodThird in the Pentecost & Parker post-WW2 1940s detective series, Secrets Typed in Blood is not a straightforward case for New York’s finest. When Miss Quick turns up on the doorstep, Miss P is weakened by side effects caused by her multiple sclerosis and Will is wearing lipstick and a pencil skirt while pretending to be a nine-to-five secretary to investigate a businessman involved in a cold case. Holly is a difficult client to read but her basic story is proven by some nifty research. Pentecost & Parker, unwilling to alert the police to their investigation, employ a private detective to research the three murdered men and identify links to Holly and her crime stories. Darryl Klinghorn does his job efficiently but without results. Until he becomes another victim of the murderer.
Entwined through this story are some attractive and unattractive characters. Miss P’s Scottish housekeeper Mrs Campbell adds her wonderful matter-of-fact analysis to knotty problems. Holly’s caretaker Mr Cosmo is a gem. I also liked the reappearance of Sam Lee Butcher, circus roustabout in the last book of the series Murder Under Her Skin, now a New York morgue orderly and occasional helper to the lady detectives. Worst is Jessup Quincannon, a wealthy man obsessed by murder who runs The Black Museum Club where murderers mingle over cocktails and canapes with his exclusive members. Upstairs is an unofficial museum of murderous artefacts displayed like art including bones, blades, hacksaws and a woman’s skirt, green chintz with golden lilies. Pentecost & Parker have a big problem. Their usual method, to identify the killer by first understanding the victim, isn’t working. Then they start to wonder if Holly is being truthful with them.
Surprising, rich, clever and inventive. The sub-plot about the Olivia Waterhouse case, the reason Will is pretending to be a secretary, left me uninvolved. I wanted to read more about the Holly Quick murders.
Next up is Murder Crossed Her Mind.

Here are my reviews of other books in this series:-
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE DEAD #1PENTECOST&PARKER …and read the #FirstPara of HERE
MURDER UNDER HER SKIN #2PENTECOST&PARKER

If you like this, try:-
‘The Killing Lessons’ by Saul Black
‘Wolf’ by Mo Hayder
‘The Various Haunts of Men’ by Susan Hill #1SIMONSERRAILLER

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview SECRETS TYPED IN BLOOD by Stephen Spotswood @playwrightSteve https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-9Yk via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Anthony Quinn

#BookReview ‘Murder Under her Skin’ by Stephen Spotswood @playwrightSteve #crime

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New York 1946. Murder Under her Skin by Stephen Spotswood, second in the Pentecost and Parker post-WW2 private detective series, starts in the Big Apple and ends in rural Virginia. A completely different world that challenges expectations and attitudes. Stephen SpotswoodWhen Willowjean Parker receives a call for help from her old boss at the Hart & Halloway’s Travelling Circus and Sideshow, Will and her boss Lillian Pentecost catch a train to the small town of Stoppard. Before Will met Lillian and became a New York detective, she spent five years with the circus and her best friend was Ruby Donner the tattooed lady. Now Ruby is dead with a knife in her back.
Spotswood takes us into the circus world, the sleaze behind the magic and wonder, the tough life behind the make-up and sequins, the rivalries, the money problems, loyalty and friendship, the envy and spite. Ruby Donner ran away from Stoppard as a teenager and never went back until returning now with the circus. Who killed her? A circus colleague or someone from her hometown who has been harbouring resentments for years? Ms Pentecost’s most recent case has made the national papers and she’s famous, even in Stoppard, but not everyone welcomes the circus or the big city detectives. Will’s former mentor, the knife-throwing Russian Valentin Kalishenko, is already locked up in the town jail and the local police chief doesn’t welcome the arrival of strangers telling him how to do his job.
The focus on life in a small town in Virginia highlights the changing society as soldiers return from war and adapt to normal life again. Lillian and Will lodge with Ruby’s uncle Doc, who runs the local cinema, and he proves a useful guide to Stoppard’s people, their secrets, lawbreaking and lies. When the circus’s sideshow is firebombed, the detectives know they must be on the right track.
Murder Under her Skin develops the dynamic relationship between Will Parker and Lillian Pentecost that was introduced in the first book, Fortune Favours the Dead. Although Lillian is older and the boss, both women bring significant skills and strengths to their detecting partnership and Murder Under her Skin is told from Will’s point of view. The women are mutually supportive of each other. Lillian is Will’s mentor and teaches her the craft of detection, Will supports Lillian when her multiple sclerosis causes issues. It is too simplistic to say Lillian is the brains and Will the brawn; while Lillian proves to be nifty with a sword, Will knows when to take the initiative and ask difficult questions and when to say silent and listen.
Very enjoyable, full of snappy dialogue between Lillian and Will, plus plenty of offbeat characters who may or may not be as they seem. Next in the series is Secrets Typed in Blood.

And here are my reviews of other books in the series:-
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE DEAD #1PENTECOST&PARKER
SECRETS TYPED IN BLOOD #3PENTECOST&PARKER

…and read the #FirstPara of FORTUNE FAVOURS THE DEAD.

If you like this, try:-
‘Death at the Sign of the Rook’ by Kate Atkinson #6JACKSONBRODIE
‘Darktown’ by Thomas Mullen
‘The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’ by Stuart Turton

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview MURDER UNDER HER SKIN by Stephen Spotswood @playwrightSteve https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8Vx via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Katie Daysh