Marilyn's Mystery Reads

In 1947 New York City, Lillian Pentecost owns a private investigation agency along with her assistant Willowjean Parker.  The two have solved a series of baffling crimes and have a good reputation.  However, when Forest Whitsun enters their office, his story is definitely something the two women haven’t heard before.

Whitsun is a high-powered criminal defense attorney who used to work for a “white shoe” law firm that specialized in successful, professional clients.  After Whitsun saved a falsely accused low-level criminal from a life sentence in prison, the two partners of the Boekbinder and Gimbal law firm strongly suggested that his talents would be put to better use outside their firm.

Now Forest is defending people his former firm wouldn’t have as clients, and his success has made him a household name.  However, he himself is now the client, and what brings him to Pentecost and Parker is a most unusual story.

Perseverance Bodine, better known as Vera, was a long-time secretary at Whitsun’s former firm before she retired.  She was known for her phenomenal memory; it was said that she never, ever forgot anything, be it a person in a photograph she had seen twenty years earlier or an obscure legal reference that the firm’s attorneys couldn’t recall.

Once she retired, Whitsun kept in touch with her sporadically.  Eventually Vera no longer wanted to leave her apartment, so he started bringing her groceries and other necessities.

On his last visit he was horrified to see her apartment–newspapers stacked higher than her head, dirty clothes and congealing food on dishes everywhere.  Vera didn’t want his help cleaning up, obviously was distressed, and after some prodding she confided the reason for her agoraphobia and hoarding.

During the war she had been approached by the FBI in their hunt for Nazis in the New York area.  With her incredible memory she was able to help them, using documents and photographs, to identify a number of spies and bring them to justice.  All this, however, brought with it a great deal of psychological pressure that manifested itself in her mental issues.  She eventually stopped allowing Whitsun to enter her apartment, making him leave the items he brought for her outside her door.

The last two times he stopped by, Vera didn’t answer the door or her phone.  He’s certain, given her phobias, that she didn’t leave her home, and she had no relatives he could contact.  Given his long friendship with Vera, he wants Lillian and Willowjean to investigate.

Forest’s case is not the only item on the agency’s agenda.  Responding to what appeared to be a sexual attack under the Coney Island boardwalk, Willowjean is attacked by the couple, and her purse containing her professional license and her Colt is missing.  She’s embarrassed that she fell for the twosome’s phony ploy, resolving to find the man and woman and retrieve what belongs to her without Lillian’s assistance.

Lillian is dealing with a secret of her own, something from her past that is being held over her by Jessup Quincannon, a bizarre multimillionaire with a penchant for collecting items relating to murders.

Pentecost and Parker make a perfect investigating pair, reminiscent of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.  Stephen Spotswood’s series, of which this mystery is the fourth volume, has a clever plot and intriguing protagonists, and I recommend putting Pentecost and Parker on your autumn reading list.

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