Fatal Inheritance

Fatal Inheritance by Rachel Rhys

Published by Doubleday

July 2018

London 1948: Eve Forrester is trapped in a loveless marriage, in a gloomy house, in a grey suburb. 
Out of the blue, she receives 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.

Alone in paradise, Eve must unlock the story behind her surprise bequest – before events turn deadly…

This is the second novel by Rachel Rhys (a.k.a. the crime writer Tammy Cohen) following her fabulous debut Dangerous Crossing last year and it doesn't disappoint.  Set in the French Riviera at the end of the second world war, the book is atmospheric, gripping and totally believable.  Sitting in the garden with the English sunshine this week I could almost feel myself transported to the heady coast of Southern France where the sky turns everything pink and everyone is beautiful.  

France in 1948 is nothing like its English counterpart.  Where rationing and make-do-and-mend are still in place in Britain, along the coastline of Cannes there is still a world of glitz and glamour and the rich and famous arrive there in droves expecting to be fully entertained.  

When Eve Forrester is summoned to a meeting with a solicitor she has never heard of before, it is not to expect to be travelling to France to discover what she is about to inherit.  Her dull, and quite frankly, annoyingly controlling husband Clifford doesn't want her to go, claiming it will all be a waste of time, but Eve is intrigued by the bequest and heads off alone to France to find out more about her surprising inheritance.

When she discovers she has been left a share in a beautiful villa overlooking the Riviera, she is suitably shocked, as are the family who own the rest of the property.  They presume that Eve has had an affair with the deceased, Guy Lester but Eve is more surprised than any of them, as she has never heard of this man before, let alone met him.

The family want nothing more than to sell the house and take the cash it will provide them, but slowly day after day, Eve begins to fall in love with the house and her new life.  However her refusal to part with her share in the property will lead to her downfall because someone wants her inheritance; with or without her permission, and Eve isn't as safe as she once thought she was.

With a whole host of glamorous characters in a fabulous setting, Fatal Inheritance is the perfect read for the summer but can you work out who is out to get Eve Forrester?  I certainly didn't!

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x