Tag Archives: novels set in New York

#BookReview ‘Murder Crossed Her Mind’ by Stephen Spotswood @playwrightSteve #crime

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New York. The disappearance of an elderly woman, a ‘retired recluse with a Kodak memory,’ is the new case for New York PIs Lillian Pentecost and Willowjean Parker. Murder Crossed Her Mind is fourth in the 1940s Pentecost and Parker series by Stephen Spotswood. I read it in three days. Stephen SpotswoodVera Bodine remembers everything and it seems to have made her a kidnap target. Forest Whitsun, a defense attorney who has battled with Lillian Pentecost in court, asks the detective duo for help. He’s worried about Vera who never goes out. He’s been visiting her apartment, taking food parcels, checking she’s okay. Until one day she isn’t in her apartment. He’s convinced her memory, a gift since she was a child, has got her into trouble. ‘I tried to imagine it,’ thinks Will. ‘Having every single thing that ever happened to me rattling around in my skull, even the bits I wanted to toss. Not to get dramatic, but it sounded like a little corner of hell.’
Will and Lillian are both distracted from the case in hand. Will was mugged in Coney Island, her beloved Beretta and bag, containing keys, money and ID, stolen. Annoyed with herself for being so weak as to be attacked, and ashamed of admitting the truth to her boss, she investigates in every spare minute she has. Lillian is hiding things too. A mysterious phone puts her into a bad mood and Will is dancing on eggshells trying not to upset her but wanting to help. Meanwhile Whitsun is demanding progress and Vera is still missing.
Does the former legal secretary at exclusive law firm Boekbinder and Gimbal know something that’s got her murdered? Or has Vera simply gone outdoors and got lost? Does she know a secret about a past client, a lawyer, her bosses? Perhaps she knows the identity of an undercover Nazi in America during the war, or the murderer in the Julia Fennel and a pawned bracelet case? There’s a lot going on here. The two detectives call in favours from the police and the FBI, but are none the wiser. Could the answer be hidden in Vera’s apartment, buried beneath the mountains of boxes and trash hoarded by this shut-in woman? Meanwhile, Lillian and Will are each dealing alone with their personal demons.
This is a really enjoyable character-led detective series of two strong women with flaws. Many characters and story strands can be traced back to the first book, so if you’re new to the series the place to start reading is Fortune Favours the Dead.
The next book in this series is Dead in the Frame.

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
SECRETS TYPED IN BLOOD #3PENTECOST&PARKER

If you like this, try:-
‘An Expert in Murder’ by Nicola Upson #1JOSEPHINETEY
‘The Blind Man of Seville’ by Robert Wilson #1FALCÓN
‘The Silver Bone’ by Andrey Kurkov #1KYIVMYSTERIES

And if you’d like to share a link:
#BookReview MURDER CROSSED HER MIND by Stephen Spotswood @playwrightSteve https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-aan via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Nicola Cornick

#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
MURDER CROSSED HER MIND #4PENTECOST&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 share a link:
#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
MURDER CROSSED HER MIND #4PENTECOST&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 share a link:
#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

#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
MURDER CROSSED HER MIND #4PENTECOST&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 share a link:
#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

#BookReview ‘Brooklyn’ by Colm Tóibín #historical #romance

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I absolutely love Brooklyn and give it 5*, which I rarely do. For me, 5* means true excellence. There is a spareness to the writing of Colm Tóibín which includes essential detail and excludes extraneous. I would not wish a single word to be changed or paragraph to be deleted, no passages seem surplus to requirement or confusing, no characters’ names are forgotten. Colm TóibínThere is no dramatic action, no mystery, no cliffhanger, simply the story of a young Irish girl who goes to Brooklyn and what happens to her there. Yes there is romance, but not in the commercial fiction sense of the term. Romance is just one element of the story.
It is 1950s rural Ireland. It is arranged by her elder sister and a family priest, that Eilish should go to America. It is deemed she has few prospects in Ireland. Brooklyn is a wonderful portrayal of 1950s Ireland and America, the attitudes, the social mores, the prejudices.
The drama comes from observing Eilish’s every step, her every thought, wondering what she will do next. The drama is in the small things. She feels so real. I wanted to say, ‘take a risk’ and ‘don’t’ and ‘go for it’. From the first few pages I was reeled in until I could not put the book down.
This is the sort of book which, having finished it, I almost wish I hadn’t read it; only so I can re-

Read my reviews of these other novels by Colm Tóibín:-
NORA WEBSTER
HOUSE OF NAMES

If you like this, try:-
‘Old God’s Time’ by Sebastian Barry
‘Water’ by John Boyne #1ELEMENTS
‘Shrines of Gaiety’ by Kate Atkinson

And if you’d like to share a link to THIS post, try:
#BookReview BROOKLYN by Colm Tóibín http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1TQ via @SandraDanby 

#BookReview ‘In Ark’ by Lisa Devaney #clifi #climatechange #scifi

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It is 2044 and New Yorkers are living through The Change. This is the world of In Ark, by Lisa Devaney. Food is mostly artificial or fresh and prohibitively expensive, a cab costs $600 and they cannot go outside in summer without protective clothing. Lisa DevaneyThis is the life Mya Brand leads, until she is abducted and taken to The Ark, an eco-survivalist commune. Once there, she must face the demons of her past life and make a difficult decision about her future. Should she stay and be safe, but not see her family and friends ever again? Or should she walk away from the commune and risk a difficult life and an early death as the climate worsens?
In Ark is part of the cli-fi, or climate fiction, genre featuring titles such as Solar by Ian McEwan and State of Fear by Michael Crichton. This is the first of three cli-fi novels about The Ark planned by this American indie author. The context is fascinating and I can see it working well as a movie. Devaney writes with precision about climate change and the effect this has on day-to-day life, as well as on society as a whole. It is clear that Devaney is an enthusiast for her genre. I would have liked The Ark to be more sinister, perhaps that will come in Book Two. It reminded me a little of the world created by Veronica Roth in Divergent, though I must point out that In Ark is most definitely an adult book rather than YA. There are a couple of vividly-written drug-fuelled sex scenes which are the sort that teenage readers would read and re-read, and some adults too.
Overall the concept of the trilogy is very different from anything else I have read, the plotting did seem a trifle slow but that is partly because the society needs to be explained so the story in Book Two and Book Three can progress.
If you like science fiction, fantasy or dystopian fiction, then try cli-fi.

If you like this, try:-
‘Divergent’ by Veronica Roth #1DIVERGENT
‘The Magicians’ by Lev Grossman #1THEMAGICIANS
‘The Queen of the Tearling’ by Erika Johansen #1TEARLING

And if you’d like to share a link:
#BookReview IN ARK by Lisa Devaney http://wp.me/p5gEM4-15H via @SandraDanby