A DEADLY INHERITANCE is the third book in the Caius Beauchamp series. The first two (THE OTHER HALF and THE IN CROWD) were most definitely crime fiction with a hefty side serving of "having a go at the uppercrust" and hugely enjoyably. In this one it's slightly more police procedural, although the family at the centre of the murder and mayhem here are still on the upper edge of the crust, and most definitely dysfunctional. But then Beauchamp's own family has a few problems of their own now, via a very convoluted set of inheritance circumstances, he's ended up with a bit of his own landed gentry to be going on with. So I guess the digs had to subside slightly, whilst complicated feelings play out.
At the heart of this series is the central character of Caius Beauchamp (ignore the implications of the name - he's a good, down to earth cop with a great team working with him), his girlfriend (the society milliner), and the death of an elderly lady and an alleged burglar, whilst her granddaughter slept off a very big night out upstairs.
There's a lot going on in the plot of this one - from the complicated murder scene, a witness that was too out of it to hear anything meaningful, a family that's got more skeletons in more closets than it's possible to keep track of, and a central cop with a family life that's gone very unexpected very suddenly.
To be honest this is a series that you absolutely have to read in order. Everything's so intertwined that any attempt to fill readers in on the backstory is just not going to work, and besides, the first two books where an absolute hoot, and this one, well it's a bit more serious in some ways, and yet it's got its own particular version of silly fun built in as well.
I read the first two as soon as I discovered the series, this one as soon as it became available and now I'm waiting for the next one again.
A Deadly Inheritance
Two murders.
Rosie wakes up at 3am already feeling the twinges of a brutal hangover - an afternoon spent day drinking with her uni pals has left her rather the worse for wear. She creeps downstairs for a glass of water - only to stumble onto a shocking, bloody scene in the kitchen.
One will.
It looks like a botched burglary has left both Rosie's grandmother and her attacker dead. But then Detective Inspector Caius Beauchamp gets a tip about the matriarch's last will. It turns out, this well-heeled family has a nefarious past.
A family full of secrets.
With his reputation on the line and powerful people pressuring him to close the case, Caius must decide what's more the body on the floor or the skeletons in the closet?
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