Book Review: Fortunes of the Dead

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Fortunes of the Dead     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Lynn S. Hightower
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Private Investigator
Series: Lena Padget
Atria, Sept 2003, $24.00, 320 pp.

Someone is targeting FBI and ATF agents that were involved in the Waco firestorm. So far five Feds are dead and within minutes after each killing an Internet broadcast announces the name of the victim and location. The Feds have targeted somebody associated with the US Pro Am Markus Bourbon Rodeo as the killer but they don’t have any idea who that person is.

ATF intern Cheryl Dunkirk has been missing for eight weeks, her car the scene of a violent struggle. Not satisfied with the work of the local police force, the family hires private investigator Lena Padget to run a separate investigation hoping she will bring a fresh perspective. There is a link between Cheryl’s disappearance and the killing of the federal agents that Lena figures out. She goes to the place where she believes the killer will strike next and finds quite a horrific scene with a killer still in the area needing to be caught.

FORTUNES OF THE DEAD takes place two years after the events in SATAN’S LAMBS and Lena has finally made peace with the death of her sister and her unborn child and her nephew. She is now living with homicide detective Joel Mendez who helped bring her sister’s killer to justice. Lena’s takes on the case that her lover is working on and that makes for some very interesting scenes between the duo in a novel that is full of action. There are many surprises in Lynn Hightower’s latest book including two cases that intersect and two killers on a collision course. This is one of Ms. Hightower’s best works to date.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner

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