Fortune Favors the Dead

By Stephen Spotswood

Book Overview

A wildly charming and fast-paced mystery written with all the panache of the hardboiled classics, Fortune Favors the Dead introduces Pentecost and Parker, an audacious new detective duo for the ages.

"Razor-sharp style, tons of flair, a snappy sense of humor, and all the most satisfying elements of a really good noir novel, plus plenty of original twists of its own."--Tana French, bestselling author of The Searcher

It's 1942 and Willowjean Will Parker is a scrappy circus runaway whose knife-throwing skills have just saved the life of New York's best, and most unorthodox, private investigator, Lillian Pentecost. When the dapper detective summons Will a few days later, she doesn't expect to be offered a life-changing proposition: Lillian's multiple sclerosis means she can't keep up with her old case load alone, so she wants to hire Will to be her right-hand woman. In return, Will is to receive a salary, room and board, and training in Lillian's very particular art of investigation.

Three years later, Will and Lillian are on the Collins case: Abigail Collins was found bludgeoned to death with a crystal ball following a big, boozy Halloween party at her home--her body slumped in the same chair where her steel magnate husband shot himself the year before. With rumors flying that Abigail was bumped off by the vengeful spirit of her husband (who else could have gotten inside the locked room?), the family has tasked the detectives with finding answers where the police have failed.

But that's easier said than done in a case that involves messages from the dead, a seductive spiritualist, and Becca Collins--the beautiful daughter of the deceased, who Will quickly starts falling for. When Will and Becca's relationship dances beyond the professional, Will finds herself in dangerous territory, and discovers she may have become the murderer's next target.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0593310756
• ISBN13: 9780593310755
• Release Date: August 2021
• Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Quite possibly the best crime solving duo since Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson

An absolutely phenomenal book. Rarely do we find a hard boiled noir mystery novel where instead of the classic masculine detective, we instead have two strong women leading the story. One a brilliant P.I. battling multiple sclerosis and the other, who serves as the narrator for the story, a former circus member with an almost equally keen mind. Both characters are beautifully written and have an amazing amount of depth to them and feel so real and all to relatable. The mystery is full of unexpected twists and turns and amazing characters that nearly kept me unable to put the book down at all. I eagerly await my copy of book #2, eager to delve into the next, of hopefully many, Pentecost and Parker mysteries.