Secrets Typed in Blood

Secrets Typed in Blood (2022) Stephen Spotswood (Pentecost & Parker)

Set in New York City in 1947

This is one of the books that I wanted to read, but couldn’t get myself in the mood for. So I went ahead and read it.

First, I really hate the new covers.

Well, hate is a strong word. I don’t hate them, but I really liked the previous covers and these are kidna boring and don’t give the sense of time and place the previous covers did.

Luckily, aside from become wiser, Will hasn’t changed.

I slipped Hiram an envelope containing a handful of bills. It was more than on previous visits since we were buying Sam Lee’s cooperation as well. It would go in the expense report under “Specialist Consultation,” which was my preferred spelling of “bribe.”

Unluckily, Lillian Pentecost’s disease is continuing to get worse, so when they taken on a new case Will has to pick up some of the slack–despite already being placed as a temp in an agency they are investigating.

“Your boss is a very interesting woman,” he said as he bundled up. “I didn’t buy Klinghorn’s line. About Lillian Pentecost fishing. But I guess it makes sense.”

“How so?” I asked.

“Well, if she were really interested in these cases, she’d have sent you.”

As with the previous books, one of my favorite things was the setting.

“?‘National’ doesn’t mean much when you’re a one-title shop,” Brent explained. “It was different before the war. Along with Strange Crime, we had Midnight Detective, High Class Crime, Dark Romance. This place was really jumping then.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“There was the paper rationing, of course,” Brent explained. “And then I and quite a few of our regular contributors got to go on a tour of Europe. That really put a crimp in things.

“Look, Sarah, an ad in Strange Crime is a billboard in forty-eight states, the District of Columbia, and a bunch of Canadian provinces.”

Between the continuing war-crimes trials, Truman pushing a loyalty order on federal employees, Congress proposing a Twenty-second Amendment, which would set term limits for the U.S. president…

It was a good mystery, and I do want to read the next, but I think I’ll wait a bit, until my brain is in a better place for it.

Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard

Rating: 8/10

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