Dead in the Frame picks up right where the previous book in the series, the cliffhanger Murder Crossed Her Mind, left off. In post-World War II New York City, after solving the murder of an elderly shut-in, Parker returns home from a vacation to see Pentecost be arrested for the murder of Jessup Quincannon, a wealthy man fascinated by crime and the people who commit it. In Dead in the Frame, Parker must discover who really killed Quincannon to prove it wasn’t Pentecost. While the books are part of a series, Spotswood writes each as a standalone novel, so readers taking their first foray into the world of Pentecost and Parker can certainly start with Dead in the Frame.

“I’ve been reading mysteries my entire life. They’ve been my comfort food since I was a teenager,” Spotswood said. He decided to write his own mystery series in 2018 after being inspired by Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series featuring an eccentric armchair detective and a young assistant, Archie Goodwin, who does the legwork. Spotswood was fascinated by this genius-and-their-sidekick dynamic. 

Pentecost and Parker’s characters came to him very quickly. Pentecost would be a genius detective with a mysterious past and living with multiple sclerosis (MS). Parker would be her queer, right-hand woman with the energy of youth and the street smarts of a carney.

“I was trying not to write a male detective with just a different skin, like a video game,” Spotswood said of his gender-swapping choice from the Nero Wolfe series to his Pentecost and Parker one. “Being women, queer, and the chronic illness all bake into their stories. They’re things that have to be navigated in every moment of these characters’ lives.” 

Spotswood says his novels are rated “a hard PG-13” with “swears but no f-bombs, sex happens off camera, and there’s violence, but not much gore.” The books are written in the style of case reports completed by Parker, and her voice as a young detective navigating her work and finding community in the city brings a freshness to the genre. Her viewpoint is sincere, spunky, and endearing. She candidly reveals her struggles and frustrations as a novice investigator and her challenges with relationships—with the justice department (the friendly coroner, the not-so-friendly police, lawyers she can’t quite figure out), with the people she meets as part of her investigations, with potential romantic partners, and with Pentecost herself, whose MS symptoms she observes honestly rather than sweeping under the carpet.  

“MS is a slow-burning disease. Symptoms worsen, and then they get better, and then it worsens again in an overall arc that is bad, physically and mentally,” Spotswood said. 

In Dead in the Frame, readers get the most insight yet into the mysterious Pentecost’s past and how her MS symptoms are affecting her, not just from Parker’s perspective. For the first time, readers hear directly from Pentecost through journal entries from her time at the New York City House of Detention interspersed with Parker’s usual reporting. 

“She is writing about her pain and about her fear,” Spotswood said of Pentecost’s diary, which she keeps while in the “House of D” awaiting trial for the murder of Quincannon. “She’s in a terrible situation and reacting to it. What she’s worried about is not just solving a crime, but staying alive long enough to solve a crime.” 

Spotswood said writing in Pentecost’s restrained voice and precise language was satisfying, especially once he had the cadence down. While readers have seen glimpses of Pentecost through her dialogue in past titles and have seen behind her stoic facade through her relationship with Parker, in this novel, Spotswood said he was able to “crack her open and have her show her feelings and emotions.”

The novel also differs from the others in that she and Parker work on the case independently. Because Pentecost is in prison, each works the case without being able to talk regularly to the other about the evidence and their theories. They don’t work alone, mind you, as many familiar characters make appearances to help them along the way. 

Before Spotswood started writing mystery novels, his creative focus was playwriting, and he has always worked as a journalist. At Washington, he majored in theatre and English and minored in creative writing. These days, he sometimes finds himself back at the College to teach. This past semester, he taught a playwriting workshop cross-listed in the theatre and English departments. 

Spotswood’s journalism experience, particularly his first job as a reporter for the Kent County News after graduating, is foundational to his writing career now. 

“The one thing that journalism and playwriting and mysteries all have in common is that you need to be really tight with your structure,” he said. “With journalism and playwriting, you have a very small amount of space in which to find the narrative and get it across. With novels, you have more space, but mysteries, even character-driven ones, have one thing lead to another lead to another, and the clues pile up, and you have to keep it sorted and know what information you’re presenting when for the reader to have the most amount of fun.” 

While the series follows a familiar mystery structure, Spotswood has created new and interesting characters worth getting to know. Parker’s voice is like that of a friend, her concerns are sincere, and her story is compelling. On the surface, Pentecost is indecipherable, but she cares, letting her guard down around Parker and a chosen few. The books are fun, and Dead in the Frame is the latest offering from a world worth entering.