Some inherit a fortune.
She inherited murder…
1917. As the Great War rages on the continent, Everest Macdonald is summoned to her father’s deathbed and entrusted with a final urgent request: she must uncover the truth behind the murder of her uncle, the celebrated Victorian actor William Terriss, a crime that has haunted her family for twenty years.
In 1897, Terriss was stabbed to death outside London’s Adelphi Theatre, a killing that shocked Victorian society. The murderer was swiftly arrested and confined to Broadmoor, the case declared closed. Yet, years later, a sealed package of evidence is passed to Everest by her dying father, which casts doubt on the official verdict and the haste with which it was reached.
Drawn back to wartime London, with her husband and children left behind, Everest begins her investigation, following a trail that leads her into the world of late-Victorian theatre, where fame and fortune mask obsession, envy and cruelty. With time running out and her father’s strength failing, Everest must uncover what really happened on the night Terriss died, and shed light on the unsettling legacy he left behind.
Based on an extraordinary true story, The Deadly Inheritance of Everest Macdonald is a dark, atmospheric historical mystery and a compelling adventure, as an unlikely investigator risks everything to pursue one of the most notorious killings of the Victorian stage.
I'm honoured to be sharing my thoughts on The Deadly Inheritance of Everest Macdonald by A.J. West today. Huge thanks to Orenda Books for my advance copy of the novel and to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the blog tour.
The indomitable , quick-witted Everest Macdonald herself is a literary tour de force. A.J. West has taken pains to infuse authenticity into his protagonist; how refreshing it is to have a woman lead the charge in spite of her middle-aged hot flushes and brain fog. She is an astute, wonderfully straightforward woman who recognises the different lifestyles of other people, including those who are euphemistically described as 'theatrical.' It's this readiness to accept people which might be her biggest flaw, however and leads to some of the best twists in this delightfully labyrinthine historical drama.
The narrative is mostly set in 1917, after Everest is summoned to the deathbed of her father, T.H. Lewin. He is terrified of facing his brother in the afterlife, believing he failed him by allowing Prince to take sole blame for the murder, when he wasn't acting alone. Everest agrees to appease him and as part of her investigation, she reads her father's memoir and the diary of her aunt, Isabel Lewin. A.J. West ensures throughout that the storyline flows seamlessly between Everest's present and the accounts of the shameful deeds of the past. His rendering of TH Lewin's exploits as deputy commissioner of the Chittagong Hill Tracts during his service with the British Raj, and particularly his intense encounters with the Mizo people of north-eastern India is exciting, mysterious and richly immersive. Likewise, Isabel's tragic , shocking diarising of her marriage to William, including their ill-fated experiences in places like the Falklands and Kentucky leaps from the page.
The strength of women – not as virtuous mother figures but as independent, courageous, flawed individuals whose stories deserve to be told as well as the men who garnered the headlines is notable throughout The Deadly Inheritance of Everest Macdonald. William Terriss really was a celebrated actor who was murdered by a fellow thespian, Richard Archer Prince but he is only a small part of this atmospheric tragedy. A.J. West has cleverly woven the known facts of Terriss's life and sensational death with an immersive, convincing imagining of the lies and betrayals that ultimately resulted in Prince being found guilty of murder.
Prince is a nuanced, challenging character who is difficult to like but is utterly fascinating; do we pity him as a man wronged by others or condemn him for his vengeful scheming? Meanwhile, the Lewin brothers' own complicity in their fates becomes more chilling thanks to the merciless curse that haunts them both. The ghosts of the past appear several times during the course of the book and the characters and readers have to decide whether they are clever deceptions or tricks of the memory. However, not everything can be so easily explained here and it's only fitting that the reckoning should take place during one of the Adelphi's dark days when theatres are shut and superstition states that dead actors return to the stage. It makes for an emotional, spine-tingling climax to this captivating tale of revenge, heartbreak and ingenious sleuthing. The Deadly Inheritance of Everest Macdonald is a triumph and I look forward to our charming, tenacious detective returning for more adventures in the near future. One of my books of the year, I cannot recommend it highly enough!
The Deadly Inheritance of Everest Macdonald is published by Orenda Books and can be ordered from their website. Further purchasing links can be found here.
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