Dead in the Frame

 Dead in the Frame is the fifth of five books (so far) in the Pentecost and Parker Murder Mystery series. If you’ve been following my reviews of the first four books, you’ll know that I chose to read those four books before I got to this one. I found the NYTimes claim that Dead in the Frame was the best crime novel written in 2025 was a most audacious claim given the competition of great crime writers. I don’t need to review the primary protagonists because this is not meant to be a stand-alone review. Given the blog’s reviews of so many crime novels, I just found it rather startling for a reviewer to claim one was the best book. Also, if there was a great writer that I had not heard of, as is the case for Stephen Spotswood, but I was also excited about the possibility of having a new author to add to my favorite authors. 

Once again, the characters and main plot and subplots were excellent. The continuing evolution of the characters of Pentecost and Parker was most interesting. In this story, Pentecost winds up in jail with a murder charge, and Parker is left to do much more of the detective work, although she is clearly stressed by not having Pentecost in firm control of the investigation that would ultimate free her. Parker was also worried about her detective partner’s failing health due to the progress of her muscular dystrophy. Parker seemed to have too much investigative work to do before the expedited trial that M. Pentecost insisted on.

 

In short, this was a very good book. I thoroughly enjoyed all five books and I hope Spotswood will pursue this series. The end of the story does set him up nicely to do so. Was it the single best crime book that I read this year? I can’t go that far. Writers such as Daniel Silva, Louise Penny, Michael Connelly, C.J. Box, S.A. Cosby, John Grisham, James Lee Burke, Don Winslow, Jonathan Kellerman, Ken Bruin, and others have produced volumes of great work far beyond what Spotswood has done so far. Certainly, his writing deserves mention with the other writers I love, and just maybe, I’m seeing the beginning of what I hoped for, a great writer whose going to keep on writing. I will be following him as I wait for novel #6. This entire series is bound to leave you wanting more from Spotswood.