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Murder Under Her Skin: A Pentecost and Parker Mystery

Review

Murder Under Her Skin: A Pentecost and Parker Mystery

Hart and Halloway’s Traveling Circus and Sideshow is making its way around the circuit of small towns that still book the show. At one stop, the Amazing Tattooed Woman, Ruby Donner, is found dead with a knife in her back. The circus knife-thrower, Valentin Kalishenko, is the obvious suspect and now sits in the local jail.

Up in New York, Willowjean Parker, famed detective Lillian Pentecost’s assistant, watches as her boss annihilates a defendant in a court case. During a lull in the testimony, Parker herself sneaks another peek at the telegram that arrived earlier --- “RUBY FOUND MURDERED” --- with the signature “BH.” Bob Halloway was Parker’s employer before Pentecost shoplifted her from the circus. He’s requesting Pentecost’s help in catching who really killed Ruby and getting Kalishenko released to star in the show again.

"Parker narrates the novel in a voice shot through with not only guts but wry humor.... The relationship between Pentecost and Parker grows ever more fun with time."

If anyone can ferret out the truth, it’s Lillian Pentecost and her right-hand woman, Will Parker. However, the small-town police chief isn’t thrilled about a couple of outsiders sticking their noses in his business. He makes his distaste for their presence clear. Pentecost and Parker don’t really care about that; they just want justice.

Set in the early 1940s, Stephen Spotswood’s MURDER UNDER HER SKIN takes us back to a time when circuses captured our attention and delighted our senses. Hart and Halloway boasts a sideshow full of colorful characters: the Tattooed Woman, the knife-thrower, a magician, the contortionist, the fortune-teller, and the ever-popular House of Venomous Things, inhabited by snakes and creepy crawlies of every ilk. Parker once thought of these people as her family. She ran away from home in her early teens; to her mind, H&H saved her. But is she still one of them? She knows them, their habits and their tendencies, but will they open up to her now? Is there a chance that they still feel they can trust her? That could be the key to solving who did this. She believes that if they want to save Kalishenko, they’ll have to come clean.

Pentecost is a marvel at solving tough cases. Rarely does she use her Sherlock Holmes trick, but she most assuredly can when need be. Afflicted with multiple sclerosis, she relies on logic and mental skills --- and a very good cane --- to do her investigating. Parker takes on the more physical aspects, and she has plenty of scars to show for it. Their unconventional approach often puts people off, especially being two women in a time when it’s men who play those parts. Indeed, they may rub folks the wrong way, and they may garner doubting looks, but they always succeed --- even if it’s by the skin of their teeth. Here, they venture into dangerous territory, uncovering a hornets’ nest of small-town crime. It seems that Ruby got caught in the middle of it.

Parker narrates the novel in a voice shot through with not only guts but wry humor. No one puts her off. Even caught in a sketchy situation, she tends to crack wise. And why not? She never found pleading to be of any help. Maybe a smart mouth will get her someplace. The relationship between Pentecost and Parker grows ever more fun with time. So where will they go next? For me, it doesn’t matter as long as I get to go along.

Reviewed by Kate Ayers on December 10, 2021

Murder Under Her Skin: A Pentecost and Parker Mystery
by Stephen Spotswood