Book Review: Murder under Her Skin by Stephen Spotswood

Murder under Her Skin is the second novel in the Pentecost and Parker series. set in the USA after World War II.

Lilian Pentecost is a brilliant detective. Willowjean Parker is her assistant/apprentice who escaped from an abusive family and, more or less by accident, joined a traveling circus and then, again more or less by accident, got hired by Pentecost. For details on that, see the first novel in the series: Fortune Favors the Dead.

When she worked for the circus, Will’s main boss was the “Mad Russian” Valentin Kalishenko, who is a knife thrower. Now, he has been arrested for the murder of another circus performer, Ruby Donner, the “Amazing Tattooed Lady.” Naturally, he calls on Pentecost and Parker to come down to the small town of Stoppard, Virginia and investigate.

Then things start getting complicated. There are acts of derring do (like Will jumping into a fire) and treachery. There are details of circus life in the 1940s. There’s drug abuse. There’s racism. There’s lots of period detail.

The plot itself is good, and kept me turning pages and guessing. But that’s like any good murder mystery. What sets the Pentecost and Parker series apart is the characters. Not only is this a detective agency run by two women, but Pentecost has multiple sclerosis and Parker was an…