Every four years like clockwork (assuming, that is, you have a strange clock with a rather vague sense of regularity*) Stephen Spotswood publishes another great novel in his Pentecost and Parker series.

And now we’re on to number four: Murder Crossed her Mind. I recently finished reading it and can confirm that it continues to meet Spotswood’s high standards. You can take the time to read the book, and/or you can cut corners by typing the author’s name into the search box at the top of this blog and then reading my short reviews of all four novels in the series. Personally, I recommend doing both — but then again I suppose I’m biased.

So, once again we’re back in New York City in the year of my birth. As I’ve stated in a previous post, Lillian Pentecost is clearly based on Nero Wolfe, and Willowjean Parker is just as clearly based on Archie Goodwin (modulo gender and century). Like the previous three novels in the series, Murder Crossed Her Mind is written with a sense of humor and a sense of time and place — as much a historical mystery as a detective story. Despite the humor it’s more noir than cozy. Things will make more sense if you read the books in order, though it’s not absolutely necessary as you will quickly catch up.

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* Y’know, I could make a nice set of algebra/geometry/number theory problems out of that idea.

Categories: Books