Fortune Favors the Brave

When Agatha Christie, the queen of mystery, first heard the nursery rhyme, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall," she didn't wonder if he simply fell-she asked if someone had pushed him. Like Christie, Roz Siegel has a knack for uncovering the macabre and mysterious beneath the surface of the ordinary and unthreatening. In this collection of twenty-one stories, everyday objects-cameras, garbage cans, rings-transform into vessels of eerie intrigue. A woman swears she hears a baby crying in the seemingly empty house next door, but is it a real baby? And is it her business? A simple clerical error forces a man to prove he's still alive. A renowned pianist returns home to find every one of his expensive suits ominously slit down one sleeve. A stranger on a plane confesses to terrible deeds-but why is he telling his seatmate, and could it be the truth? Reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, but infused with Siegel's own distinctive voice, these tales will challenge how you see the world, as the familiar becomes unsettling and the mundane turns magical. That is, if you dare to believe.