Deadly Inheritance: It’s not about the Money.

Clair Poulson’s a popular suspense writer among the LDS community, and it’s been a few years since I read his “Don’t Cry Wolf,” so I thought I’d check out his newest book, “Deadly Inheritance.”

As a suspense author, Mr. Poulson’s got some good things going for him with his background in judicial law and pumping out new stand-alone novels about twice a year.  In some ways, because of this, his books can feel like episodes from Law and Order.  Unfortunately, he’s published through Covenant Communications (if you don’t remember what this means, here’s a flashback to my review on “Heaven’s Shadow“), so it’s obviously Mormon with a cheesy romance thrown into the suspense.

I’m happily surprised that I read every page of this book (that’s a good sign, since I usually skip parts that I know aren’t important to the story – which strangely happens a lot).  Okay, I admit, I skimmed parts of unnecessary repetition as the characters updated each other with their individual findings, but thankfully, that only happened twice (and really, I think that could have easily been cleaned up with a better publisher).

Anyway, pertaining to the story itself, the main characters, Andi and Bolden (twins), basically raised themselves (and almost their mom too) from the rough gangs of Detroit.  Bolden escapes by joining the military, and Andi escapes by driving all day, winding up in small town Spring Hollow, Montana.  A gentleman and retired cop by the name of Gramps takes her in, feeling lonely after the loss of his wife and son.  When Gramps’ enemies come back to haunt him, however, it’s up to Andi, Bolden, and their convenient Private Investigator friend to solve the murder before their own lives are taken.

Rather than the typical mystery of trying to guess “who-dunnit,” this is a thriller of “we have a very good guess of who the killer is, but how do we prove it?”  “Deadly Inheritance” also takes an interesting turn in the middle of the book, nearly separating it into two parts as a suspect dies, claiming innocence.  The murderers are sneaky and collaborative, intriguing the reader until they’re realized, and then pushing the reader to the edge of suspension as they fight for their plans, even after they know they’ve lost.

For plot, I give this book ***3 stars***, though the publisher’s cheesiness keeps it from rising even to a 3.1.