I hope that this first book of 2023 will be indicative of what my New Reading Year will be like. It has glorious cover art which gives the reader an excellent preview of what they will be getting. Set in the 1940s, the main characters are both women: Ms. Pentecost is a private investigator who also incidentally has multiple sclerosis. Will (Willowjean) Parker is a much younger woman, who left home at 15 and quite literally joined the circus. Pentecost is a Sherlockian genius and Parker is the streetwise protégé. They make a great team.
Will is the narrator. She is an enthusiastic fan of detective literature and tells the tale in a very noir voice. There are certainly plenty of dames in the course of the novel! There is a convoluted family mystery, worthy of Agatha Christie. Mind you, in Christie's time there wouldn't have been the plethora of queer characters as Spotswood provides.
I picked this book up because it was the December choice of the mystery book club sponsored by my local bookstore. I couldn't get it from the library in time for the December meeting, but I intend to start attending these meetings in February. If this book is any indication, they choose excellent mysteries and I look forward to discussing them with other mystery enthusiasts.
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