Secrets Typed in Blood

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader as part of a Quick Takes Catch-up post, emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness.

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This was a nice step up from the previous books. Spotswood is gaining in confidence and it’s showing. The main client this time out was the best yet and was so believable—the crime was an interesting twist on a familiar setup (see the Castle pilot, for example). The secondary case was pretty much just filler (so much so that Pentecost was willing to give it up), but it still gave some good moments and set up some other promising things. There’s a side trip into an ongoing crusade of Pentecost’s that was really well done—I’m really interested in seeing how this progresses in the future.

This is clearly a Nero Wolfe-inspired series, but it’s becoming less of one all the time—and that’s good. Even better because Spotswood’s Zeck is going to prove to be more formidable and subtle than Stout’s was. (although I wish he’d give Parker the same kind of privacy when it comes to her personal life as Stout gave Archie)

Overall, I liked this.