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A review by pleforge
Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood
Even not knowing that this book won the Nero Award, it’s hard not to make the connection between this series and Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries. Willowjean (Will) Parker functions as Lillian Pentecost’s Archie Goodwin. Like the Stout characters, they live in a luxurious brownstone apartment in New York in the 1940s. Will does much of the interviewing, later relating in detail what she has learned. Although Lillian is not a housebound orchid breeder like Wolfe, an advancing case of Multiple Sclerosis hampers her ability to travel. There are other similarities as well.
The first book in the series is a locked-room mystery. A woman is found murdered in her late husband’s study—bludgeoned to death with a crystal ball recently used in a séance. All windows are barred and the door can only be locked from the inside. The woman’s family hires famous detective Lillian Pentecost to solve the case. Is the murderer one of the family who stands to inherit her money? Or someone at the company that she was the major stockholder in? Will hopes it isn’t the woman’s daughter, Becca: she’s cute as hell, but has secrets.
Will’s POV voice reminds me a little more of Erik Schubach’s Finn May than Rex Stout’s Archie Goodwin, but all three are interesting narrators that move the story along. The plot of the novel is intricate, the investigation interesting, and the solution fairly unexpected with a couple of twists along the way.
High marks for twisting Rex Stout’s iconic Nero Wolfe series into a Sapphic, feminist one. But maybe take some tenths off for the same reason—original characters are more commendable than characters obviously based on others, no matter how small or subtle the transformation. But although this book doesn’t seem to break any new ground, I would recommend it to just about any lesbian mystery reader as a fast-paced, easy, and likable read.
Note: I listened to an audiobook version of this novel read by Kirsten Potter.
Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 1000 other lesbian mysteries by over 330 authors.
The first book in the series is a locked-room mystery. A woman is found murdered in her late husband’s study—bludgeoned to death with a crystal ball recently used in a séance. All windows are barred and the door can only be locked from the inside. The woman’s family hires famous detective Lillian Pentecost to solve the case. Is the murderer one of the family who stands to inherit her money? Or someone at the company that she was the major stockholder in? Will hopes it isn’t the woman’s daughter, Becca: she’s cute as hell, but has secrets.
Will’s POV voice reminds me a little more of Erik Schubach’s Finn May than Rex Stout’s Archie Goodwin, but all three are interesting narrators that move the story along. The plot of the novel is intricate, the investigation interesting, and the solution fairly unexpected with a couple of twists along the way.
High marks for twisting Rex Stout’s iconic Nero Wolfe series into a Sapphic, feminist one. But maybe take some tenths off for the same reason—original characters are more commendable than characters obviously based on others, no matter how small or subtle the transformation. But although this book doesn’t seem to break any new ground, I would recommend it to just about any lesbian mystery reader as a fast-paced, easy, and likable read.
Note: I listened to an audiobook version of this novel read by Kirsten Potter.
Another Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 1000 other lesbian mysteries by over 330 authors.