Publication: 26th July 2018 by Doubleday
She didn’t have an enemy in the world…
until she inherited a fortune
London 1948: Eve Forrester is trapped in a loveless marriage, in a gloomy house, in a grey suburb.
Out of the blue, she received a solicitor’s letter. A wealthy stranger has left her a mystery inheritance but in order to find out more, she must travel to the glittering French Riviera.
Eve discovers her legacy is an enchanting villa overlooking the Mediterranean sea and suddenly, life could not be more glamorous.
But while she rubs shoulders with film-stars and famous writers, under the heat of the golden sun, rivals to her unexplained fortune begin to emerge. Rivals who want her out of the way.
Alone in paradise, Eve must unlock the story behind her surprise bequest – before events turn deadly…
Reminiscent of a Golden Age mystery, Fatal Inheritance is an intoxicating story of dysfunctional families and long-hidden secrets, set against the razzle-dazzle and decadence of the French Riviera.
I completely immersed myself in this novel about secrets, unexpected inheritance, celebrity parties, and the beautiful south of France. The protagonist of the novel is Eve Forrester, a woman who travels to the Riviera to find out more about the unexpected inheritance she just received. Eve’s life is quite dull, spending her days waiting for her husband to come home from work, so, when Guy Lester, a man she’s never heard of, leaves her a share in his house in the south of France, she can’t wait to escape her boring suburbia life to spend time partying and sunbathing among actors and writers. While she quickly finds new friends in Sully, an American author, and the Cornell family, Eve is not welcomed by the Lesters who are surprised as much as her that their father left her a share in their house. And, while she tries to find out more about her connection to Guy, there is also someone who is trying to get rid of her.
I really liked the character of Eve. It was fascinating to watch her change and become her own person when she arrives to the Riviera. She is no longer the young woman eager to please her husband and her mother – with whom she has a complicated relationship – and I rooted for her as she refused to go back to England to her husband and delayed the sale of the house until she found out more about the mysterious inheritance.
The novel is set in 1948, right after World War II, and the author perfectly depicts an Europe still trying to recover, from parents grieving for their children died in battle to suspicion towards people believed to be linked to the Nazis. But the Riviera is full of wealthy people looking to forget all of that with actors and writers partying and remembering the golden age before the war (I loved the references to the Fitzgeralds and the Murphys).
I am ashamed to admit that this is my first novel by Rachel Rhys (who writes also under her real name Tammy Cohen), but I plan to catch up soon, because I really enjoyed her riveting and engrossing plot, her atmospheric setting, her engaging characters, and her captivating writing style, and I’d like to thank Alison Barrow and Transworld for providing me with a proof of this charming and entertaining novel.
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