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Radio 2 Book Club with Stephen Spotswood

Stephen Spotswood joins Jo for the latest edition of the Radio 2 Book Club to discuss his debut novel, Fortune Favours The Dead.

Stephen Spotswood joins Jo for the latest edition of the Radio 2 Book Club to discuss his debut novel, Fortune Favours The Dead.

Introducing Pentecost and Parker, two unconventional female detectives who couldn鈥檛 care less about playing by the rules, in their cases and in their lives.

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 will 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.

A wildly charming and fast-paced mystery written with all the panache of 1940s New York, Fortune Favors the Dead is a fresh homage to Holmes and Watson reads like the best of Dashiell Hammett and introduces an audacious detective duo for the ages.

Stephen Spotswood is an award-winning playwright, journalist, and educator. As a journalist, he has spent much of the last two decades writing about the aftermath of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the struggles of wounded veterans. His dramatic work has been produced nationwide and includes Girl In The Red Corner (winner of the 2017 Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play), In The Forest She Grew Fangs, Doublewide, and more. He makes his home in Washington, D.C., with his wife, young-adult author Jessica Spotswood.

1 hour, 57 minutes

Last on

Mon 14 Dec 2020 19:00

Music Played

  • Reef

    Place Your Hands

    • 21st Century Rock (Various Artists).
    • Virgin.
  • Blossoms & Stockport Junior Voices Choir

    Christmas Eve (Soul Purpose)

    • Christmas Eve (Soul Purpose).
    • 1.
  • Diana Ross

    I'm Coming Out

    • Diana Ross & The Supremes - 40 Motown.
    • Polygram Tv.
  • Sam Fender

    Winter Song

    • Polydor.
  • Chilly Gonzales

    The Banister Bough (feat. Feist)

  • Major Lazer & DJ Snake

    Lean On (feat. 惭脴)

  • Taylor Swift

    willow

    • evermore.
    • TS/Republic Records.
  • Wyclef Jean

    Gone Till November

    • (CD Single).
    • Columbia.
    • 2.
  • The Go! Team

    Cookie Scene

    • Memphis Industries.
  • Desmond Dekker & the Aces

    Christmas Day

  • dodie

    Rainbow

  • Lizzo

    Juice

    • (CD Single).
    • Atlantic.
  • Smith & Burrows

    When The Thames Froze

    • Funny Looking Angels.
    • 2.
  • Bicep

    Apricots

    • Ninja Tune.
  • Otto

    Tell Me Something (I Don't Know)

    • Post.
    • Bay Street Records.
    • 1.
  • The Staves

    Satisfied

  • The Smiths

    There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

    • (CD Single).
    • WEA.
    • 15.
  • Amy Winehouse

    I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (Live At Union Chapel, Islington)

    • I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (Live At Union Chapel, Islington For "The Gospel.
    • Island.
    • 1.
  • Nina Simone

    Feeling Good

    • Sex And The City (Various Artists).
    • Columbia.
  • Imogen Heap

    Last Night Of An Empire

  • Annie Lennox

    Didos Lament

  • Sam Cooke

    Smoke Rings

Broadcast

  • Mon 14 Dec 2020 19:00