book: Murder Under Her Skin

[redbird]

I finished Murder under Her Skin,, by Stephen Spotswood, last night.
It's a good mystery novel, meaning in this case that I liked it and that the solution to the mystery didn't depend on obvious contrivance or characters doing something implausible for no good reason.

This is a sequel to Fortune Favors the Dead, and feels like the beginning of a series. I'll be happy to read more about about Will Parker and Lilian Pentecost, the detectives. The story is set at a traveling circus, currently set up in a small town Virginia; the locals are a bit suspicious of the circus folk, and at least as suspicious of the private detectives from New York City.

The books are set right after World War II, and part of why I like these is that Parker is a not-very-closeted bisexual woman, and her boss, Ms. Pentecost, has MS, and it's depicted realistically. No inspiration porn, certainly no miracle cures -- just getting by from week to week with a cane, and trying not to overexert herself.

Comments

[pameladean]

This has reminded me to thank you for bringing up Louise Penny's mysteries a while back. I have since acquired and devoured them and am even rereading some.

P.

[dewline]

Thank you for this recommendation.

Keeping it in mind...

[mrissa]

One of the things I really love about them is that Pentecost actually does try not to overexert herself. It's not "oh I will try not to overexert myself while learning acrobatics and swimming the English Channel while simultaneously fighting three sharks and four villains." It actually is "I'm going to do a lot of the desk work here, I'm going to talk to persons of interest, I'm going to do the stuff that is not highwire stunts because didn't you hear me I am trying not to overexert myself." And some of that is that she's got the Goodwin-and-Wolfe structure to play with, but still, it works really well for me.

[redbird]

Yes. We also see her overdoing it enough to be a problem, by doing an amount of stuff that wouldn't be a problem for a healthy person. That calibration is hard.

[sabotabby]

Oooh, that sounds good!

[joseph_teller]

I'll have to go looking for this author. I'm deep into a binge listening of "Shedunnit" a podcast about the Golden Age of Women Mystery Writers....