Secrets Typed in Blood

 Secrets Typed in Blood by Stephen Spotswood is the third book of his five-book series, The Pentecost and Parker Mystery Series. This story takes place in 1947 in New York City where the world’s greatest detective, Lillian Pentecost, lives and maintains her office. Will Parker is her young protégé and the two of them have formed a formidable detective team. They continue to be hired by people who either don’t want to go to the police with their problems, or the police had simply been unable to solve their problems, usually murders. A successful crime writer, Holly Quick discovered that someone was acting out her murder mysteries in real life. She felt violated to have to her ideas stolen.

 The cases are complex, but never too complicated for the remarkable Ms. Pentecost. Pentecost has muscular dystrophy which is slowly getting worse, and she is very dependent on Will for all of the leg work required of such an occupation. There are multiple copycat murders, and then one occurs when it is fresh off Ms. Quick’s typewriter, before it had even been published.

 

Spotswood has filled out his story with interesting characters surrounding both Ms. Quick and the detectives. The plot is well designed and I certainly did not see the end coming before I got there. The writing of Spotswood is starting to grow on me. Now, I’ve acquired the first book in the series, Fortune Favors The Dead. While these books do work as stand-alone novels, I think it makes more sense to read them in the order in which they’ve been published.