Secrets Typed in Blood by Stephen Spotswood is a captivating and atmospheric mystery that plunges readers into a world teeming with intrigue, betrayal, and the intricate web of human connections. Set against the bustling backdrop of 1940s New York City, the novel follows the astute and resourceful private investigator Lillian Pentecost as she navigates a labyrinth of secrets that threaten to upend the lives of those around her.

Spotswood’s evocative prose transports readers to this vibrant era, crafting a narrative that is as engaging as it is suspenseful. The story unfolds with a masterful balance of tension and character exploration, as Lillian and her spirited assistant, Willowjean, take on a case that intricately links their personal lives to the mysteries they aim to unravel.

A highlight of Secrets Typed in Blood is the dynamic relationship between Lillian and Willowjean. Their partnership is not only central to the plot but adds significant depth to the narrative. Lillian’s seasoned intuition complements Willowjean’s youthful enthusiasm and fresh perspective, forming a compelling duo that readers will wholeheartedly support as they confront challenges and unveil hard truths.

The novel thoughtfully examines themes of identity, loyalty, and the echoes of the past in shaping the present. As Lillian and Willowjean dig deeper into the investigation, they confront their inner battles and the secrets that have influenced their lives. Spotswood’s skill in weaving these personal struggles into overarching mystery enriches the story, transforming it from a mere whodunit into a profound exploration of human experience.

The pacing is meticulously crafted, with unexpected twists that keep readers on their toes until the final pages. Spotswood builds tension expertly, culminating in a satisfying and unforeseen conclusion that weaves together the narrative’s various threads.

Secrets Typed in Blood is a compelling and beautifully written mystery that will resonate with fans of historical fiction and detective tales alike. Stephen Spotswood has constructed a rich and immersive world filled with intriguing characters and a plot that continually surprises. This book is an essential read for anyone in search of a thought-provoking mystery that lingers long after the last page is turned.

A fun historical mystery series with a dash of noir, a splash of queer representation, humor, and GREAT pacing. I cannot rant long enough about how many mysteries fail because the pacing is just wrong. I loved these characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Secrets Typed In Blood by Stephen Spotswood

Willowjean “Will” Parker is coming off of the fresh high of apprehending a kidnapper with her boss Lillian Pentecost, 1947 New York City’s most celebrated detective. But there’s no time to rest on their laurels, as they must move quickly to once more pick up the trail of Pentecost’s greatest nemesis, Olivia Waterhouse. The woman going by that name is a criminal whose ability to vanish has left the esteemed detective grasping at straws. The trail goes warm again when an eyewitness report places Waterhouse in the office of the Shirley & Wise law firm. Under the name Emily Ginsburg, she worked as a secretary there for eight weeks before disappearing once more.

Pentecost wants Parker to go undercover as a temp in the same office in order to suss out what Waterhouse was looking for. Parker isn’t thrilled: after all, she did not join the private detection trade in order to wear skirts and heels and sit at a typewriter all day. But she’s also more reluctant than usual to antagonize her boss, whose behavior has certainly changed since what was supposed to be a routine doctor’s visit at the end of a previous case:

QUOTE
All [Pentecost] wanted was a cursory check on her hoof to make sure no real damage had been done. But while he had her on his table, the doc put her through the series of tests that she was supposed to have on a regular basis and that she’d been avoiding for the better part of a year.

The tests that tracked how her multiple sclerosis was progressing.

I didn’t know how things went. Our relationship did not extend to having access to her medical records. Whatever the results, she came out wanting to take on every case that walked in the door.

Make of that what you will.
END QUOTE

This newfound zeal soon finds Parker assisting Pentecost in yet another intriguing new case, in addition to her undercover work and the usual services they provide for the needy. Holly Quick is a highly-strung author who rubs Parker the wrong way almost from the jump. Holly has difficulty with one-on-one situations, which makes their initial consultation an ordeal for everyone involved. Parker goes through the usual formalities, but Holly’s uncommon perspective on crime makes note-taking more difficult than expected, as Holly tries to explain the problem that has befallen her:

QUOTE
“Oh, it’s not personal. Not really,” she declared. “No, I take that back. It <i>is</i> personal. Very personal. Do you mind if I smoke? No, no, never mind. There’s no ashtrays. Context clues. Have to remember context clues. Anyway, where was I? Right. Personal. Yes, very personal. Somebody is stealing my murders.”

I paused my shorthand.

“Stealing your murders?” I assumed I’d misheard.

“Yes,” she said, looking my way but not quite meeting my eyes. “It’s really… I don’t know the proper word. Infuriating. Insulting. Violating. Yes–a violation! It’s a violation of the most profound sort!”
END QUOTE

Holly, you see, is a successful writer of mystery short stories, written under various and mostly male pseudonyms. In the past six months, someone has begun to copy several of her fictional murders, turning them into real life crimes. Once she became aware of the connection, she decided to come to Pentecost instead of the police. Holly doesn’t trust the cops, in large part due to her fiercely protected sense of privacy. She insists, too, that if Pentecost and Parker take the case, then they must keep the authorities out of it as well.

Soon enough, Parker is juggling the footwork for both investigations, leading her to cross paths with a host of colorful characters, including sleazy private investigators and scary personal bodyguards. Murderers lurk in every shadow, placing her in mortal peril when she least expects it. Evading one serial killer is a big ask for any crime-fighter. Will Parker be able to outwit two?

I deeply regret never having read any of the clever, queer-friendly Pentecost And Parker novels before this one! Secrets Typed In Blood is the third in the series, and I was fully surprised by the twists and turns in the narrative as Parker hunts down criminals at the behest of her genius boss, like a female, latter-day version of Archie Goodwin doing the legwork for the housebound Nero Wolfe. Fortunately, it’s very easy to slip into the overall narrative from here, and to root for our heroes as they navigate post World War II New York. I was genuinely astonished by, and fully felt all the emotional plot reversals in this book. This is definitely a novel for people who enjoy well-written mysteries with very human and diverse protagonists.

What is not to love in a Parker and Pentecost mystery. Willowjean is her usual feisty self and of Lillian as always is on her toes. The pair are faced with a client who writes for thriller magazines-it is 1947 and not considered a suitable vocation for a woman, so she uses a pen name. Holly Quick's mysteries are taking a turn when the murder itself is fashioned on her plot. Holly Quick has her own secrets as well.

Secrets Typed in Blood is a welcome addition for clever crime fiction readers: original characters, strong women, a pulp fiction twist, and a who-done-it plot. The novel is set in 1947 New York City and revolves around a copycat murderer who is using plots found in crime fiction magazine stories to gain the attention of their author. This is book three of the Pentecost and Parker Mystery series, but it can be read as a standalone novel. Guaranteed, though, readers will go back to read books one and two.

This is actually my first of the series, even though it is book 3. I was thrown right into it and had to learn fast. Still, I felt I caught on pretty quickly. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. The story has a dynamic duo in crime solving. You can read all it’s about it the description. Just know that if you are new to this world, do not feel like you can’t start here. Now, I have to go back and find the first two.

This series continues to be a delight to read, and I’m so pleased to see that the work of Pentecost and Parker has brought them back home to New York City this time around.

Will continues to be one of my favorite protagonists in a currently active mystery series, and the dynamic between her and Lillian is one of the best parts of these books.

It’s interesting that despite the fact that there isn’t a lot of real estate on the page devoted to descriptive content and setting in these books, Spotswood still somehow creates and excellent sense of place and atmosphere.

The mystery in this one is a tick below those of the first two book in the series, though I’m not sure it made the read any less enjoyable. The solve was a bit disappointing since it was kind of out of the proverbial left field, but the process of getting there was as good as ever.

The first book in the Pentecost and Parker series, the utterly marvelous Fortune Favors the Dead, won the 2021 Nero Award for “the best American Mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories.” And it’s probably the most on-the-nose recipient of the award since it was won by Murder in E Minor by Robert Goldsborough, which was an actual Wolfe story.

Why? Because Pentecost and Parker are very much in the style of Nero Wolfe and his right hand – and frequently leg-man Archie Goodwin, along right along with their shared East Coast brownstone setting.

One of the many eccentric things about Wolfe was that he endeavored to never leave the brownstone. Goodwin went everywhere for him, gathered all the clues and evidence at his boss’ behest, and then genius Wolfe put it all together.

Wolfe could leave the brownstone, he just very strongly preferred not to and was more than enough of a genius that he generally got his way.

Lillian Pentecost, on the other hand, probably shouldn’t leave her brownstone nearly as much as she does. She has multiple sclerosis, MS, and the progressive disease is progressing in fits and starts. She’s not going to get better and she knows it. The best she can do is hold it at bay, and one of the best ways to accomplish that is to reduce the stress in her life.

Something which she is utterly incapable of. What she attempts to do instead is send Willowjean Parker out and about as her right hand and leg woman, to bring those same clues and evidence back to her brownstone to help her put it all together.

And there’s more to put together in this case than Will Parker first has a handle on, starting with the client. On a case that Parker can’t even figure out why Ms. Pentecost took. Along with the reason her boss is willing to not just put up with but actually honor all the very strange and downright hamstringing conditions that said client wrapped around it.

Holly Quick writes crime stories. As those are just the kind of thing that Will Parker likes to read, it’s not a surprise that Parker has read quite a few of Quick’s stories, even if she didn’t know Quick was writing them.

In the 1940s, writing crime stories was not exactly a field open to women. (Rather like writing science fiction stories.) The pulp magazines of the time knew better than to present a whole bunch of blood and guts under a female byline. So they didn’t. In fact, Holly Quick wrote under a veritable plethora of pen names, both to disguise how much of a single issue was actually the product of a single pen, and to let readers believe that all those stories about evil lurking in the hearts of men were written by one.

But Holly Quick had a third reason for hiding her identity – one that Lillian Pentecost sees immediately but that Will Parker has not yet sussed out. And it’s that hidden reason that convinces Pentecost to take the case, and keeps her from keeping her partner as informed as she should be about what they are really investigating.

What they have is fascinating enough. Someone is taking Holly’s stories and re-enacting them as real murders. To paraphrase Ian Fleming, “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action,” or in this case the pattern of a serial killer.

The question is whether Pentecost and Parker can figure out who is doing it without letting Holly Quick’s real secret out of its old and rather fraying bag. Or whether it’s already too late – whether for one, the other or both.

Escape Rating A-: Both of Pentecost and Parker’s previous cases, Fortune Favors the Dead and Murder Under Her Skin, have dealt rather explicitly with Parker’s past as an abused child who literally ran away and joined the circus. It’s the knife-throwing skills she learned there that saved Pentecost’s life and led to their partnership.

But by this point in Parker’s life, she is fully invested in her career with Pentecost as a licensed private detective. Which doesn’t mean that she doesn’t still suffer from impostor syndrome when Pentecost starts keeping secrets about the case from her. Because we view the story from inside Parker’s head, her discomfort and self-doubts become ours, and make the middle of the case a bit hard to read.

(I desperately wanted to be reassured that all would be well but didn’t want to spoil the ending. Fortunately, the worst of that bit didn’t last long and then it was off to the races – against death – again.)

What made this case interesting wasn’t the obvious case. The whole ‘life imitates art imitates life’ thing, where a serial killer recreates an author’s or an artist’s work through murder is not exactly a new face on the barroom floor. It’s been done before, and countless times at that. This was an interesting take on that trope, but not a unique one.

What was interesting was the case underneath the case, the reason why Lillian Pentecost took it in the first place. And that kept me guessing not just because Holly Quick’s secret was fascinating, but because of the way she dealt with her own life in keeping that secret. And the way that Lillian Pentecost was willing to help her keep it and what that hinted at in Pentecost’s own past.

So come for the mystery. Stay for the stresses and strains on this fascinating partnership. And try not to think too hard about their cook, Mrs. Campbell, and her preparation methods for haggis – which make the backyard look rather like a crime scene. All part of a day’s – or more likely several night’s – work for Pentecost and Parker.

It’s clear from the ending of Secrets Typed in Blood that there are plenty more cases on the horizon for this duo. And I can’t wait to read them.

The latest entry in the Pentecost and Parker series is a delight.

Lillian Pentecost has taken on a new case, for a woman who writes lurid murder mysteries for magazines under pseudonyms. Holly Quick's stories are being used by a real-life killer. The first time she saw that a murder had been committed similar to one of her stories, she thought it was coincidence. But now there are three, and she can't ignore it anymore. She is afraid the killer knows her real name and can find where she lives.

Willowjean Parker doesn't like Holly; she can tell she's not giving them the entire story, and she doesn't understand why Lillian is acquiescing to Holly's rigid rules of who they can talk to and what story they share with them. But Lillian has a good reason, and Holly is right to be scared.

This is a very clever mystery, and illuminates parts of history in the 1940s that many people probably don't know about. Polyamorous relationships and bisexuality are discussed as part of the plot. I also love how Lillian's MS is handled, because "hidden" disabilities are often not discussed in such a frank manner.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.

This series has become one of my favorite and each book just gets better.
Following the two female detectives in 1940s New York as they work to solve twisty compelling crimes will never get old. This book stands up well with the rest of the series and I can't recommend this book and series enough. There is great dialog, fascinating characters, feminism, social commentary, a compelling mystery and a style/tone that kept me rushing through the book as fast as I could.

(it probably could be a standalone, but you really should read the series in order to get the most out of it)

This is a highly readable and well-done series, featuring a female detective duo: the famous Lillian Pentecost, and her assistant/partner Willowjean Parker, known as Will.

Previous books detailed their meeting and and how their partnership came about. Pentecost is highly intelligent, scrupulous, famous, haughty and yet empathetic. She also has MS and the disease's progress is a thread in the story. Her sidekick Will reminds me at times of Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe's second in command. Will is ambitious, impatient, bright and sometimes chafes at her boss's inaction.

They wind up with two cases. One is a follow-up to an earlier meeting and requires Will to dress up and act as a temp secretary at a corporate office, much to her dismay. The second case is more intriguing. A young mystery author comes to them because someone is killing people and arranging them to match the plots of her books. She doesn't want to involve the police because her real identity would be uncovered and it turns out she has a notorious past, through no fault of her own.

You could read this as a standalone but it would be much more gratifying to start at the beginning and trace the partnership. I like the characters and I like the narrative style. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Secrets Typed in Blood is the third in a series of pulp crime fiction straight out of New York and the 1940s. Detective Lillian Pentecost and her younger side-kick, Willowjean "Will" Parker are called on by a crime writer, Holly Quick, whose stories are seeming to come to real life as the crimes Holly writes about are really happening, leaving a trail of bodies. While Pentecost and Parker are good at what they do, they still have the matter of an unsolved crime involving Dr. Olivia Waterhouse.

Pentecost decides Will can put on pencil skirts and high heels and go to work as a secretary in an office, which might have the answers to some of their questions - or at least, access to a safe which might contain the answers. And what about Holly's bosses who are responsible for editing the crime magazines? And what about the owner of the Black Museum Club, a private museum whose collection consists of gruesome murder accessories?

Willowjean (Wil) Parker and her boss P.I Lillian Pentecost are on the trail of a literary serial killer. Their new client is a female crime author who makes a living writing gruesome murder mysteries for a magazine. She writes under an assumed name to keep her secret past hidden but lately someone has begun killing people based on the methods she used in her recently published pieces. Wil goes undercover at the magazine to try and flesh out the killer and before you know it both she is pulled into danger. This is a clever series that features unusual characters outside of the stereotypical 40's private investigator role. They don't think twice about using whatever hidden weapon they have handy or shy away from the messy stuff. I can't wait for more of this dynamic duo from the master of crime noir. Readers of Mickey Spillane style crime novels minus the femme fatale client will appreciate this series. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

"Secrets Typed in Blood" is a strong addition to a very engaging series. The main characters have developed from book to book, so I suggest new readers start with "Fortune Favours the Dead".

I came to this novel with high expectations, having really loved the first two novels in the series. Secrets Typed in Blood seemed to lose steam. The propelling force in the series is the first person narration of Willowjean "Will" Parker, part of the detective duo of Lillian Pentecost and the spitfire Will.

The premise was fascinating: a copycat murderer imitating fictional mystery stories. As it unfolded, the multiple mysteries in addition to a leftover mystery from earlier in the series made for a confusing and muddled plot. The differently-abled Pentecost, who has multiple sclerosis, continues to be a heroic character and Parker to add the hard-boiled flavor, but they seem to grow as far apart as closer together. Secrets between them cause the plot to plod as Parker is effectively sidelined from the action throughout the middle of the novel.

While I did enjoy the book overall, the snap and sparkle were significantly dampened in this outing, and I can only hope that Spotswood sticks with one murder and regains the energy of the series.

When a killer starts modeling murders after the stories by Holly Quick, a writer for pulp detective magazines, Quick hires detectives Lillian Pentecost and Willowjean "Will" Parker to investigate while keeping their work under wraps from the local police.

This series as a whole is so much fun, from the lingo to the fashion, the relationship between Pentecost & Parker, and the fantastic NYC 40s setting. The plot was well written, complex without being convoluted, and I enjoyed the peek into the world of pulp magazine publishing. For some reason this book didn't pull me in as much as the first two.. While the series' initial title did a great job introducing the characters and setting up the series, and the second title had the fabulous backdrop of circus life and Parker's hometown, this book didn't have that something special that set it apart from other mysteries. I didn't find Holly to be a compelling or interesting character, and the weird murder club seemed a little contrived. Still a solid historical mystery, recommended for readers who've enjoyed the first two in the series.