Fatal Fortune

About the Book

Mike Brown thought that with the loss of his wife he was never going to know happiness again, but within a year he’d met—and subsequently married—a fascinating woman, one who, though many might have called her eccentric, seemed to be, for him, an amazing stroke of good fortune.

But, little by little, Mike began seeing Rebecca as something other than the ideal mate he’d started out believing she was.  There were the mood swings, for one:  Rebecca could be bubbling with confidence, ready to run for public office—and then, as if someone had thrown a switch, she’d be lost in a black depression, convinced she was incompetent and doomed to a life of poverty…until the next jolt of energy shot her emotions skyward, launching bouts of reckless spending and plans ever more grandiose and unrealistic.

And while Mike Brown strove to keep his wife on something resembling an even keel, he became aware that all his well-intentioned efforts were doing was to turn his wife ever more against him.

About the Author

Kirby Hoon was born in Madisonville, Kentucky, where as a high school student he excelled in football, English and band. Following graduation he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, and for the next three years he served as a member of several bands at large air bases in the United States and Asia. Hoon married his childhood sweetheart, Sharma Bevel, after completing basic training. They had a daughter, Rachel, and a son, Donnie Jay. All three were killed in a tragic 7-11 robbery in Las Vegas, after Kirby retired from the Air Force to work as a showroom musician in a major Strip hotel-casino. Kirby Hoon took up writing as a form of therapy in the days following the loss of his wife and children. In Fatal Fortune, his first psychological novel, he tells the story of a grieving widower who enters an ill-starred second marriage to a woman suffering from manic depression. “It’s not something that happened to me,” Hoon says. “I’m not saying I’m the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but I’m not dumb enough to get involved with someone like that. But it did happen to someone I know, someone whose name I’m not going to divulge.” The author now divides his time between San Francisco and Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, where he runs a small charter boat enterprise.