2022 mystery, third in its series. Pentecost and Parker are back in
New York, where three murders have been committed in the style of a
particular crime writer.
New York feels like a more natural setting for these stories than
the rural Virginia of the second book. Mean streets, and all that. And
even if we know that the lives of the misfits we meet are going to get
worse in the 1950s as conformity becomes an idol, they have at least
made a place for themselves to be happy now.
Things immediately get complex. Will goes undercover as a secretary on
a job that doesn't seem likely to lead anywhere, and feels herself
frozen out of the real case. Why is Pentecost accommodating the
client's unreasonable requests? What does the ghoulish collector of
murder memorabilia have to offer, and will his price be something
they're prepared to pay?
But particularly I like to see Parker's practical investigation close
up, while Pentecost is largely there to make a Brilliant Deduction and
then not explain it immediately—so that the reader's aware that this
is a checkpoint and if they're playing the game they should have
worked something out by now. It's neatly done.
I do sometimes feel that the sentences may be rolling off the keyboard
just a little too quickly with not enough reading through
afterwards.
Regarding the photograph I'd found of Holly in her mother's drawer,
Ms. P gave no opinion. Or at least none that she shared.
"formed no opinion" would work there, but clearly if she didn't give
an opinion, she didn't share it.
the world's premier female gumshoe, and her erstwhile assistant
The assistant is still in the present tense, so she's not erstwhile.
(Though I gather this error isn't unique to Spotswood.) Things like
this throw me out of my enjoyment of the book; they make the prose
feel less finely honed and more just glurged onto the page in a shape
that looks more or less right, and mostly is.
On the other hand there's this splendid exchange:
"She's of the mind that white women are nothing but trouble. I told
her you and me weren't involved like that but… she has her
opinions."
"I just rousted you out of bed to go off chasing a man who might be
responsible for brutally murdering four people."
"So?"
"So your landlady's right," I said. "I am definitely trouble."
I'm still enjoying the series, this more than the second book.