Fortune Favors the Dead: A Novel (Pentecost and Parker)
It’s the early 1940s in New York, and private investigator Lillian Pentecost and her assistant Willowjean (Will) Parker are hired to investigate the murder of socialite Abigail Collins. She was found dead in the same chair as her wealthy husband, who took his life the previous year. The room was locked from the inside, so rumors abound that she was killed by the spirit of her dead husband. While the police focus on the family’s financial records, Lillian and Will question potential suspects: the beautiful but cold daughter, the angry and resentful son, the secretive godfather, a spooky spiritualist, and a large cast of factory workers with their own stories about the Collinses.
Fortune Favors the Dead is a fast-paced, lightweight, and engaging whodunit. I felt I was watching film noir and reading an old hard-boiled detective novel, written in a breezy chick-lit voice. Both women are ahead of their time. Lillian is a smart no-nonsense woman from the upper crust. She makes a good living investigating and solving crimes the police can’t, commands her own life, but opens her doors to help abused women. Will is a street-smart young woman who isn’t afraid to stand up to anyone, either verbally or physically, or express her own sexuality in an era that wasn’t tolerant.
The mystery of who killed Abigail and why is sustained throughout the novel as the plot thickens, weaving in the characters, suspects, and their connection to the Collinses. The ending is satisfying and hints at a sequel with another female character as a possible nemesis or Moriarty-type figure to Lillian and Will. Overall, the novel gives only passing references to the war or the moral and cultural norms of the day but is fun to read.
