Fortune Favours the Dead
A dazzling murder mystery set in 1940s New York
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3.4 • 5 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The 'razor-sharp' first book in the charming, fast-paced Pentecost and Parker mystery series. Book Two, Murder Under Her Skin, coming December 2021!
Meet your new favourite duo, audacious and iconic, and perfect for fans of The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel, Agatha Christie and M. C. Beaton.
It's 1945 and Lillian Pentecost is the most successful private detective in New York City, but she needs help. Enter Willowjean Parker, a circus runaway - and the perfect assistant. Quick-witted and street-smart, she's a jack-of-all-trades with a unique skill-set. She can pick locks blindfolded, wrestle men twice her size, and throw knives with deadly precision - all of which come in handy working for Ms P.
When wealthy young widow Abigail Collins is murdered Pentecost and Parker are hired by the family to track down the culprit. On Halloween night, there was a costume party at the Collins' mansion, where a fortune teller performed a séance which greatly disturbed Abigail. Several hours later her body was discovered bludgeoned to death in her late husband's office. Problem is, the door to the office was locked from the inside. There was no-one else in the room, and the murder weapon was beside the victim; the fortune teller's crystal ball.
It looks like an impossible crime, but Pentecost and Parker know there is no such thing...
A 2020 Radio 2 Book Club pick.
Praise for Fortune Favours the Dead:
'Razor-sharp, tons of flair and a snappy sense of humour' Tana French
'Bullets, blood, bodies, and belly-laughs: all the ingredients of a classic mystery novel. Stephen Spotswood hard-boils with the best of 'em!' Alan Bradley, bestselling author of the Flavia de Luce Mystery Series
'Fortune Favours the Dead takes gritty 40s noir, shakes it up, gives it a charming twist, and serves it up with unforgettable style. My new favourite sleuthing duo.' Deanna Raybourn, author of the Veronica Speedwell Mysteries
'Spotswood's stellar debut puts a modern spin on classic hard-boiled fiction. . . a novel to remember.' Publishers Weekly
'This novel not only offers fun, offbeat characters and an exceptional flavour of the time, it's utterly charming too.' Woman's Weekly
'This hugely enjoyable debut is a deft melange of Agatha Christie-style locked-room murder mystery and 1940s Chandler-esque pulp crime fiction with a feisty narrator' Irish Independent Review
'A highly accomplished, auspicious first entry in what we must hope will be a long-running series' The Irish Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Spotswood's stellar debut puts a modern spin on classic hard-boiled fiction with a duo of female private investigators. In 1945 Manhattan, Lillian Pentecost, "the most famous woman detective in the city and possibly the country," struggles with multiple sclerosis. Fortunately, Lillian can always rely on her sharp-witted assistant, Willowjean Parker. Lillian hired her three years earlier after Will, a runaway whose five years performing with a traveling circus gave her a unique skill set, used her knife training to save Lillian's life from a gunman. Their latest case involves a wealthy woman who was bludgeoned to death with a crystal ball in a locked room during a party. It becomes personal when Lillian realizes that an old adversary, a fake medium and spiritual adviser, is entangled in the murder. Complications arise after Will becomes romantically entangled with the victim's beautiful daughter. The deep and sensitive characterization of the two protagonists, coupled with rich description and tonally spot-on humor, make this a novel to remember. Spotswood is definitely a writer to watch.
Customer Reviews
Closed room mystery
2.5 stars
Author
American playwright, journalist, and teacher. Much of his journalism is about wounded veterans in the aftermath of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the struggles of wounded veterans. His play Girl In The Red Corner won the Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play in 2017. He's married to YA writer Jessica Spotswood and lives in DC. This is his first novel.
Plot
New York 1944. Lillian Pentecost is mid-forties too, and is the city's finest private eye: bane of the police detectives she invariably upstages. Trouble is, she has multiple sclerosis. She needs an assistant with singular skills when she meets up Willowjean "Will" Parker, a tomboy who ran away to the circus as a teenager. She's now 20; her skill set includes bareback riding (horses not the R rated type), knife throwing, lock picking, and miscellaneous derring do. The gals team up and solve mysteries (the main one a closed room murder) in idiosyncratic fashion. The end.
Narrative
First person Will. Did I mention she's into chicks?
Characters
Leads tick the wokeness boxes for people with disability and LGBTQI. They and most others are OTT (over the top) in one way or another, but that aids the mystery solving and no doubt contributes to the charm and humour described in the cover blurb. (I must have missed that part.)
Prose
Mr Spotswood is an accomplished writer, whose fondness and respect for Dame Agatha is clear. (Will receives an autographed copy of Evil Under The Sun from her near the end.) However, there are no painted scenery backdrops in a novel, dude. Apart from stating the time and place like stage directions at the outset, we get little if anything of substance about 1940s NYC. The book is also 100 pages too long.
Bottom line
A sequel is on the way. I don't think I'll bother.
Footnote
Notwithstanding my lack of enthusiasm, this book rates >4 stars on Goodreads. My excuse: I started reading fiction thanks to Agatha Christie, but grew out of her by the age of 13.