Murder Crossed Her Mind

July 1, 2023

It's 1947 New York City, and Vera Bodine, an older woman with an icepick-sharp memory that's served lawyers and FBI agents alike, has vanished. As they investigate, Det. Lillian Pentecost and wily assistant Willowjean "Will" Parker counter threats to their own integrity, Lillian from a millionaire who's discovered a secret in her past and Will from thieves using her name and possibly her gun. Next in the Nero Award--winning series. Prepub Alert.

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October 1, 2023
An old enemy offers everything but an apology to get Brooklyn private eye Lillian Pentecost to track down a sharp old lady missing from the apartment building she turns out to own. Before she retired in 1941, Perseverance "Vera" Bodine wasn't just any legal secretary. Her photographic memory made her a highly prized employee at Boekbinder and Gimbal. Now Forest Whitsun, the high-powered defense attorney who left Lillian bloody but unbowed when they crossed swords in court, entreats her to find out what's happened to his friend Vera, who's sharp as ever even though she's pushing 80. Whitsun's greatest fear is that Vera's post-legal work as a Nazi hunter has exposed her to enemies who'd stop at nothing even though the war's been over for two years. Since the case involves a vulnerable woman, Lillian signs on despite her worsening multiple sclerosis, as if she already knows that the greatest dangers will await her right-hand woman (and the novel's narrator), Willowjean Parker, who begins by getting beaten with her own blackjack by a pair of Coney Island thieves and then gets into even bigger trouble when she traces the culprits to a mob run by the menacing Donny Russo. In his detecting duo's fourth adventure, Spotswood dials down Lillian's saltiness and the period details. And this time around he's even less interested than usual in the big reveal; the different strands of Will's investigations never come together satisfactorily, and the person behind Vera's disappearance is an unforgivably minor character. What remains is the pungent first-person narration. Is that enough? You decide.

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October 9, 2023
Spotswood’s spotty fourth outing for private detectives Willowjean “Will” Parker and Lillian Pentecost (after 2022’s Secrets Typed in Blood) buries the pair in an avalanche of inquiries and incidents. In the fall of 1947, New York City defense attorney Forest Whitsun calls on Pentecost and Parker to track down his friend, Vera Bodine, a retired secretary in her late 70s. Soon, Will and Lillian learn that Vera’s age and occupation belie her colorful—and dangerous—life, which could have gathered her all manner of enemies. Her disappearance might be linked to her obsession with a string of recent murders, for instance, or perhaps to her time assisting the FBI in tracking down Nazis. Meanwhile, Will is targeted by a group of small-time crooks who’ve stolen her identity, and Lillian’s multiple sclerosis worsens while she’s blackmailed by an old nemesis. Will’s Archie Goodwin-style wisecracking is likely to keep readers amused, but Spotswood overstuffs the plot and delivers a limp resolution to the main mystery. This one’s for diehard fans only. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Literary.

October 15, 2023
New York City, 1947. Famed detective Lillian Pentecost and her firecracker assistant, Willowjean "Will" Parker, have a new case. Forest Whitsun, a defense attorney with whom they are often at odds, has hired them to find Vera Bodine, an elderly recluse with a photographic memory who has gone missing. Did secrets from Vera's employment at a prestigious law firm catch up with her, or was it the spy work she did for the FBI during World War II? And why had she become obsessed with the recent murder of a young woman? In a Christie-like denouement, the elegant Lillian presides in a "death-black" suit, looking, narrator Will tells us, "like the grim reaper if he had a better tailor." Along the way, Lillian engages in an ongoing struggle with macabre crime-memorabilia collector Jessup Quincannon, and Will tries to find the couple who mugged her. Will's first-person narrative is witty, gritty, and "as smooth as Lauren Bacall between silk sheets." A superb retro noir that summons another unlikely brownstone duo, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.

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