Fortunes of the Dead
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
Southern PI Lena Padget’s hunt for a missing coed leads her into a deadly mystery born in the fires of the ATF’s Branch Davidian siege in Waco, Texas.
Though still haunted by ghosts from her past, Lena Padget has made a good life for herself in Lexington, Kentucky, as a private eye specializing in cases involving abused women and children. But Lena’s latest case threatens her romantic relationship with her live-in lover, police detective Lt. Joel Mendez. Hired by the family of college student Cheryl Dunkirk, who disappeared while serving as an intern for the US Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, Lena is working the same missing person’s case that Joel is officially exploring—albeit from a different angle.
But Cheryl’s fate may be linked to a series of mysterious deaths of ATF agents who were involved in the disastrous raid on the Branch Davidian cult’s complex, and Joel and Lena’s personal issues will have to be put aside when an ice-cold serial killer’s insatiable hunger for blood turns their professional competition into something deadly.
Fortunes of the Dead chronicles PI Lena Padget’s second gripping excursion into the darkest corners of human experience. A story of blind rage, vengeance, madness, and murder that crackles with suspense, it will appeal to readers of Karin Slaughter and Laura Lippmann.
Fortunes of the Dead is the 2nd book in the Lena Padget Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The instantly believable and deeply touching way that Hightower maneuvers her private detective Lena Padget through the dangerous clich s of working on the same case as her policeman lover, Joel Mendez, in their latest outing (after 2002's High Water) shows what a class act she is. As Lena sits alone in the giant clawfoot bathtub in the old house that she and Joel have bought together in Lexington, Ky., she indulges in a brief moment of self-pity after Joel stalks out without a word when she tells him she's been hired to look into a case he's on. But she's soon back in impressive action, working for the family of a young female intern with the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agency who seems to have been murdered by her married lover. (And Joel returns to get his suit, tie and shirt wet by hugging her in the tub.) Just as Lena proves she's a terrific detective by getting new information on her very first interview, so Hightower shows us what a fine storyteller she is on every page. The local murder soon turns out to be connected to a revenge plot against the ATF that has its roots in the Branch Davidian disaster in Waco, Tex., and a sharply sketched ATF agent, Wilson McCoy, badly wounded in that shootout, comes out to Lexington from Los Angeles to join the investigation. There's a large cast of victims and possible villains, but Hightower makes sure that Lena and Joel's always interesting sexual footwork never gets lost in the shuffle.
