Tag Archives: 1940s New York

#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 ‘Fortune Favours the Dead’ by Stephen Spotswood @playwrightSteve #crime

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I love finding a new series to explore. Fortune Favours the Dead by Stephen Spotswood is first in the late 1940s New York-set Pentecost & Parker detective series. Certainly different from anything else I’ve read in this genre. The post-war city setting is dynamic and refreshing. Stephen SpotswoodWhen circus runaway Willowjean Parker meets her new boss, private detective Lillian Pentecost, it is so nearly their last meeting. Ms Pentecost, whose advice has been sought in the past by Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of the wartime president, recognises Will’s unusual talents – knife-throwing, sharpshooting, bareback horse riding, fire-eating and how to get out of a straitjacket – and recruits her as her private assistant. New York is a swirling mixture of poverty, opportunity, change and excess. The war has ended and everyone is adjusting to the new rules of life. When wealthy widow Abigail Collins is murdered not long after her husband committed suicide, and in the same room of their mansion, the police investigation stalls. So the family calls in Lillian Pentecost to investigate. The Collins family steelworks faces financial trouble as wartime contracts are up for renewal, soldiers are returning from war to the jobs done in their absence by women, and rumours are circulating that Abigail was killed by her dead husband Al.
The Abigail Collins case is told from Will’s viewpoint, a nice mixture of detecting, caring for her fragile boss, and going off track pursuing her own suspicions. Will – newly trained in law, shorthand, car mechanics, bookkeeping and driving – is brave, strong and well-meaning. Sometimes she gets into trouble but she often digs up new evidence. Something that MS-sufferer Ms Pentecost, Ms. P, is less able to do. In a future book I’d like to hear more from Ms. P.
The death of Abigail in a locked room seems impossible to solve but the combination of Ms. P’s razor-sharp mind, memory of past crimes and vast cuttings archive, with Will’s derring-do, leads them to clues the police have failed to spot. There are plenty of suspects and witnesses; a theatrical fortune teller and her slimy assistant, a brawny factory manager, Abigail and Al’s fragile son and daughter, Al’s business partner, a failed journalist turned archivist and an academic sceptical about clairvoyancy.
The setting is special, the relationship between the two lead female characters is special. I’ve read a lot of crime novels of different sub-genres and have an eye for spotting the guilty party, Fortune Favours the Dead kept me guessing until the last pages. And it’s fun.

If you’re curious, try the #FirstPara of FORTUNE FAVOURS THE DEAD.

And here are my reviews of other books in the series:-
MURDER UNDER HER SKIN #2PENTECOST&PARKER
SECRETS TYPED IN BLOOD #3PENTECOST&PARKER

If you like this, try:-
‘The Killing of Polly Carter’ by Robert Thorogood #2DEATHINPARADISE
‘Big Sky’ by Kate Atkinson #5JACKSONBRODIE
‘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 FORTUNE FAVOURS THE DEAD by Stephen Spotswood @playwrightSteve https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6VM via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Ken Follett